tangled up in views

A Dream Conversation

2011-12-23T11:51:00.008+05:30

Tonight

My 3rd dream

Will meet your 4th (you sleep earlier than me)

Over cups of cloud

They will chat about

Their hopes and dreams

Then they will move on

To the reality of our lives

As the night fades into a new dawn

A rough translation in Urdu follows...

Aaj Raat

Mera Teesra Khaab

Milega Tumhaare Chauthe Se

Baadalon Ki Pyaliyon Ke Saath

Baatein Hongein Hamaari
Ummeedon Ki Aur Khaabon Ki

Phir Haqueeqat Ka Saamna Hoga

Jab Raat Subah Ki Taraf Jaane Lagegi

Nanhi Si Jaan

2011-12-02T18:09:00.004+05:30

Sometimes, you wake up in the night with something in your head.

Nanhi Si Jaan

Ek Baar Jab Neend Na Aayi
Jaa Pahucha Taaron Se Milne
Balcony Mein Hava Sard Thi
Traffic Ki Awaaz Bhi Nahin Thi

Saamne Lamppost Ke Neeche
Khadi Thi Ek Nanhi Si Jaan,
Thand Me Thartharati
Zindagi Se Haar Maanti

Maine Awaaz Dekar Kaha
‘Aao Oopar Ghar Mein
Baahar Ki Thand Mein
Bimaar Padne Ka Dar Hai’

Halke Paanv Oopar Aayi Woh
Thand Se Safed Hua Chehra Liye
Sehemte hue Baithi Arm-chair Pe
Maine Chai Aur Chaadar Badhaai

Chehre Ki Laali Thodi Waapas Aayi
Toh Maine Poocha, ‘Kaun Ho Tum, Kahanse Aayi?’
Ussne Kaha, ‘Main Is Raat Ki Beti Hoon,
Zara Raasta Bhool Gayein Hoon’

Waqt Guzra Aur Chidyon Ne Kaha
Ke Seher Hone Hi Waali Hai
Woh Uthke Badhi Darwaaze Ki Or
Maine Poocha, ‘Phir Kab Milogi?’

Boli, 'Shaayad...Jab Tumhein Neend Na Aaye Agli Baar’

Chalo Gaane Paida Karte Hain - Come, Let's Parent Songs

2011-09-10T01:23:00.005+05:30

This one happened while on my way to a client meeting. It was a long journey spanning 3 states, so I had enough time to craft it. But then, I erred...and a friend & a colleague helped me rectify the errors.

To savor this, you've got to imagine a musical rainy night with scotch and a good friend to give you company. If he/she is a musician, even better!

Chalo Gaane Paida Karte Hain

Aao Hum Gaane Paida karte Hain
Ek Chotti Si Musical Family Banaate Hain
Tum Dhun Nikaalna, Main Bol Dalunga
Mukhda Tum Jaisa Hoga, Antara Mujhsa

Jab Thode Bade Honge Hamaare Gaane
Ek Acche Se Studio Mein Daakhila Delaayenge
Taaki Ek Acchi Si Tarbiyat Paakar
Zara Nikhar Jaayenge Sur Taal Mein

Aur Phir Duniya Mein Agar
Sab Ke Azeez Ho Gaye Yeh Gaane
Hum Fakhr Se Ek Doosre Ke Saath
Gungaanaate Phirenge Inhein

Come, Let's Parent Some Songs (A Rough Translation)

Come let’s give birth to songs
And build a small musical family
You set the tunes, me adds the words
Chorus will look like you, verses like me

When our songs grow up a bit
We shall put them in a good studio
With some good upbringing
They will get fine tuned

And when presented to the world
If the songs get sung by others
With our hearts full of pride
We shall be humming them too

Ashu Miyan Hamaare

2011-07-25T17:02:00.006+05:30

My nephew, Ashar (lovingly called 'Ashu') turned two last Saturday. I wrote some lines for the occasion and they go like this.

Ashu Miyaan Hamaare

Ashu Miyaan Hamaare
Ab Do Saal Ke Ho Chale
Abhi Kal Hi Ki Toh Baat Hai
Ke Duniya Mein Aaye The

Toothi Phooti Meethi Meethi
Dheeme Baatein Karte Hain
Mummy Papa, Dada Dadi
Naana Naani, Sab Ke Mithaayi Hain

Paani Se Badi Mohabbat Hai
Chap Chap Karte Rehte Hain
Shushu Karne Ke Bahaane
Roz Chaar Dafa Nahaate Hain

Chicken, Ice Cream, Chocolate
Unke Pasand Ki Cheezein Hain
Kucch Aur Khaane Ko Do Toh
Mummy Ko Daudaate Hain

Jab Aashu Miyan, Pehli Baar
Mile Mumbai Ke Monsoon Se
Baadalon Ki Garaj Se Bina Dare
Naachte Gaate Phire Khushi Se

Jo Ghar Mein Nahin Hai
Woh Ophish Gaya Hai
Aur Kucch Raaton Ko Toh
Chand Bhi Ophish Jaata Hai

Miyan, Filmi Bhi Ho Gaye Hain
Item Songs Ko Pettu Gaana Aur
Kucch gaanon Ko Patta nahin Kyon
Maamu Gaana Kehkar Bulaate Hain

Na Jaane Aur Kya Kya Karenge Aage
Lekin Aaj Toh Is Red Bus Ko Kaat Kar
Apni Doosri Saalgirah Manaayenge
Hum Sab Ke Pyaar Ke Beech

That's Ashu Miyan with his charming smile.

Bandipur Ke Bandi

2011-05-28T15:50:00.006+05:30

About a month ago, along with some of my friends, I spent a few days at a National Forest called Bandipur, which is located in the state of Karnataka. This one came to me over there.

Bandipur Ke Bandi

Halki Baarish Mein Bheegti
Jungle Ki Ek Neeli Si Jheel
Haule Haule Jhoom Rahi Aise
Hawa Ke Saath Waltz Kar Rahi Jaise

Hirnon Ki Fauj Jama Hai Paas Mein
Jaise Khubsoorti Ki Hifaazat Karne
Aur Shaayad Is Haseen Waltz Ki
Dheemi Nazaakat Ka Lutf Uthaane

Jungle Ki Khaamoshi Se Hokar
Eucalyptus Khushboo Mein Nahaayi
Ek Meethi Dhun, Four By Four Mein
Aa Rahi Hai Is Raqs Ki Madad Ko

In Sab Ko Kahin Band Karne Ki Chaah Mein
Meri Yeh Thodi Si Koshish Hai
Shaayad Aa Jaayein Nazar Aapko Bhi
Woh Waltz Aur Woh Fauj Hirnon Ki

Worli Sea Face Ki Ek Shaam

2011-04-21T14:25:00.006+05:30

Of late, I've started utilizing the proximty of my home to the sea-face promenade of Worli by going for regular evening walks of brisk types. This one comes from one of those walks.

Worli Sea Face Ki Ek Shaam

Kabhi Is Tez Zindagi Se
Thodi Si Mohlat Lekar
Baitho Logon Ko Dekhte
Sea-face Ki Ek Bench Par

Umr Ki Shaam Mein
Laathi Liye Hava Khaate Log

Ear-phone Kaan Mein Daale
Sehat Ke Liye Bhaagte Log

Saari Aur Sneakers Pehne
Aadhi Moti Aunty Log

Breed Kutte Ghumaate
Uktaaye Hue Naukar Log

Garm Chana Bhoonte
Rozi Roti Kamaate Log

Sharm-bhari Aankho Se
Chips Bechti Ek Baaligh Si Ladki
Majboori Hai Bechaari Ki
Warna Aisa Kyon Karti?

International Women's Day

2011-03-08T14:19:00.005+05:30

This is the third time Majaaz figures in a post on this space. This time it’s to mark this International Women’s Day through his beautifully powerful Nazm, urging the women of India in the pre-independence days to get involved in the freedom movement. Apart from being the great Romantic poet that he was, the man had a strong revolutionary / progressive side too.

I’ve also tried translating the Ghazal for my non-Urdu (English friendly) friends.

Hijaab-e-fitna parwar ab utha leti to achha thaa,
Khud apne husn ko parda bana leti to achha thaa.

Teri neechi nazar khud teri ismat ki muhafiz hai,
Tu is nashtar ki tezi aazma leti to achha thaa.

Teri maathe pe ye aanchal bahut hi khoob hai lekin,
Tu is aaNchal se ik parcham bana leti to achha thaa.

Translation is as follows:

If you now raise the veil of revolt, it would be good,
And instead make your beauty a veil, it would be good.

Your lowered gaze is itself a protector of your purity,
If you now raise your eyes and test the sharpness of it, it would be good.

The cloth covering your head is no doubt a good thing,
But if you make a flag out of it, it would be good.

For my other two posts on the great poet, you can go here and here.

'Chaubees Ghante' or 'Love Story of a Hooker'

2011-01-30T22:24:00.003+05:30

Chaubees Ghante

Jhoothi Raat
Khaali Baatein
Ghair Ki Baahein
Nakli Aahein

Sacchi Subah
Alsaayi Aankhein
Bikhri Zulfein
Kal Ki Khabrein

Garam Dopeher
Thandi Beer-Cans
Puraane Naghme
Nayi Baatein

Simat-ti Shaam
Sehmi Baahein
Pyaar Bhari Nazrein
Khaamosh Baatein

Sulagti Raat
Pighalti Baahein
Dheemi Aaahein
Garm Saasein

Love Story of a Hooker (a rough translation in English)

Untrue Night
Empty Talks
Unknown Arms
Fake Sighs

True Morning
Lazy eyes
Tousled Tresses
Newspaper Headlines

Warm Afternoon
Cold Beer Cans
Old Songs
New Talks

Together evening
Shy Embraces
Love-filled Eyes
Quiet Conversations

Fiery Night
Melting Arms
Quiet Sighs
Warm breaths

Kuchh Acche Palon Ki Ungli Thaame - Happy 2011!

2011-01-07T12:08:00.009+05:30

A fresh year is yet another occasion to contemplate and look forward. While doing so. I came up with this. Have a great year ahead!

Kuchh Acche Palon Ki Ungli Thaame

Kucch Acche Palon Ki Ungli Thaame
Hum Mushkil Galiyon Se Nikal Jaate Hain
Zindaki Ke Kai Ghumaavdaar Raaste
Hum Yunhi Tay Kiye Jaate Hain

Kitne Dost Aaye Aur Gaye
Kucch Paas Bhi Reh Gaye
Unke Saath Thoda Hans Bol Kar
Hum Apni Shaamein Saja Lete Hain

Kuch Ghaltiyan Bhi Ki Hain Humne
Aage Bhi Hoti Rahengee, Shaayad
Par Kucch Acche Karmon Ke Sahaare
Unhein Sudhaar Bhi Lenge, Shaayad

Kucch Acche Palon Ki Ungli Thaame
Hum Mushkil Galiyon Se Nikal Jaate Hain
Zindaki Ke Kai Ghumaavdaar Raaste
Hum Yunhi Tay Kiye Jaate Hain

Holding The Finger Of Some Good Moments (a rough translation in English)

Holding the finger of some good moments
I pass through the difficult lanes
That’s how I keep traversing
The long & winding journey of Life

Many friends came and went
Some stayed with me as well
We often talk & laugh together
And our evenings are decorated

I’ve made some mistakes too
Perhaps will make some more
But thanks to some good deeds
I might just rectify ‘em errors

Holding the fingers of good moments
I pass through the difficult lanes
That’s how I keep traversing
The long & winding journey of Life

Mumbai Winters...if there is anything like that.

2010-12-21T14:46:00.006+05:30

The first two lines of this piece came to me some mornings ago, when I woke up feeling an unusual (and welcome) nip in the Mumbai air. Rest of the words took a couple of days to follow.

Mumbai Ke Jaade

Khushiyon Ki Shawl Odh Lo Yaaron
Mumbai Ke Jaade Aa Gaye Hain
Naram Moze Bhi Pehen Lo Yaaron
Thandi Raatein Bhi Saath Aayeein Hain

Chai Ki Pyaaliyon Se Garm Karenge Haath
Scotch Ki Chuskiyon Se Shaamein
Vaseline Ki Dibbi Nikal Gayi Hai Baahar
Ab Thandi Hawaaon Se Hongi Jo Baatein

Subah Ki Neend Zyaada Pyaari Hogi
Ceiling Fan Se Thodi Dushmani Bhi
Chaadar Se Yaaraana, Office Na Jaana
Kucch Aisi Hi Hamaari Kaifiyat Hogi

Building Ka Watchman Aag Ke Aage
Raat Kaatega, Aungh Aungh Ke
Uske Dulaara Gali Ka Kutta Bhi,
Aa Jaayega Thodi Garmaahat Paane

Khushiyon Ki Shawl Odh Lo Yaaron
Mumbai ke jaade aa gaye hain
Garm moze bhi pehen lo yaaron
Thandi raatein bhi saath aayein hain

Mumbai Winters (a rough translation in English)

Wear the shawl of happiness, my friends
Mumbai winters are here
Put on your soft socks as well
Cold nights too have come along

Cups of tea will warm our hands
Scotch sips, the evenings
Vaseline box has come out
Shielding us form the cold wind

Morning sleep will be sweeter
Ceiling fan, slightly bitter
Love with sheets, hatred with office
That’s how all of us will feel

Building’s watchman will light a fire
To doze off the night, in front of it
His pet street-dog will slowly crawl in
To get a bit of warmth from it

Wear the shawl of happiness, my friends
Mumbai winters are here
Put on your soft socks as well
Cold nights too have come along

Roothi Raat

2010-11-30T13:24:00.008+05:30

The following piece is dedicated to a good friend. For us, the night is always like a lovely bride, who we decorate with conversations, music, spirits and food, when we meet. On one occasion, recently, we couldn't, despite making all the plans to do so. And then, these words came.

Roothi Raat
Ek Roothi Aur Bezaar Raat
Dulhan Bante Bante Reh Gayee
Na Gehne Aaye, Na Sajaanewala
Aur Na Hi Band Baaja

Akele Sone Ki Koshish Mein
Lagi Rahi Woh Saari Raat
Aaj Chand Bhi Saath Na Tha
Taare Toh Door Ki Baat

Bas Ab Subah Ka Intezaar Tha
Ke Chamakti Roshni Aaye
Aur Apni Aaghosh Mein Lekar
Khatm Kare Yeh Aazmaayish

Subah Ke Intezaar Mein
Dulhan Ban-ne Ke Khwaab Mein
Aakhir Aankh Lag Hi Gayi Us Raat Ki
Kaun Jaane Agli Raat Ka Kya Hoga?

I apologize to my non Hindi / Urdu readers for not putting up a translation of the lines in English (as I usually do). I tried but I'm unable to do justice (as of now). Perhaps I shall be succesful later.

Obama in Mumbai

2010-11-03T12:42:00.016+05:30

The president of the United States of America, Barrack Obama will be in Mumbai on 6th of November, 2010, which happens to be the Diwaali (Indian festival of Lights) weekend for India.

Feeling too lazy to drive, I hopped into a taxi to reach office. The friendly Taxi Driver started to chat. Translated in English, the conversation went like this.

Taxi Driver: Sir, this leader from faraway land, Okaama or Onaama…when is he coming? He has screwed up Diwali (Indian Festival of Lights) Holidays of the Traffic & Security Cops.

My reply: I agree with you Sir.

No further conversation happened between us as I got a phone call from an old friend.

Then I reach my office building to see the sidewalk below the building getting a new coat of paint by a mal-nourished looking man while a healthier looking supervisor (my assumption) was giving instructions. Another quick conversation happened between me and the supervisor.

My remark: ‘Obamaa???’

Supervisor’s reply: ‘Yeah…Barrrack Obaama. He is coming with lots of Dollars!’

The man who was painting applied a fresh coat of yellow and I walked inside the building. A couple of hours later, I wrote this.

Bhari Sadkein, Khaali Pet
Bhari Sadkein
Khaali Pet
Mumbai ke laakhon ka
Hai Ye fate

Ek Vada Paav Mein
Din Nikaalte Hai
Raat Ki Khaali Sadak Ko
Bistar Aur Takiya Bana Lete Hain

Door Desh Ke Obama
Nahin Milenge In Laakhon Se
Chamakti Sadkon aur Sea-Link Dekh Kar
Chale Jaaayenge Waapas USA

Bhari Sadkon Mein Bheed Badhti Jaayegi
Lekin Pet Shaayad Khaali Hi Rahega
Sone Ki Jagah Thodi Aur Kam Hogi
Mumbai Sheher Jaari Rahega

Stuffed Roads, Empty Bellies (a rough translation)
Stuffed roads
Empty bellies
This is the fate of
Millions of Mumbaiites

One Vada-Paav (Indian Veg -burger)
Sees them through the day
And in the night-time
Streets become their pillow and bed

Obama from faraway land
Won’t meet these millions
After seeing the sparkling roads & Sea-Link
He will go back to the USA

Stuffed streets will get more crowded
But bellies will remain empt, perhaps
Sleeping spaces will get smaller
While Mumbai will keep going on

Here’s wishing all my readers a very Happy Diwali!

An Act of Violence

2010-10-28T11:52:00.004+05:30

Right now, all the Hindi NEWS channels have a new scoop. They are busy talking about a particular Auto-Rickshaw Driver in Mumbai, who doused a traffic cop with kerosene and then set fire to him.

While the act is hideous & violent, one can imagine the anger of the auto-rickshaw driver. It almost smells of the cumulative angst of the entire auto-rickshaw driver community who continuously get harassed by these traffic cops for the smallest of their follies. Having travelled in auto-rickshaws, I myself have been witness to these unwarranted acts of harassment on couple of occasions.

In the auto-rickshaw driver community, this particular driver will probably become a hero. But, my fear is that cop-harassment instances will increase as a repercussion of this one incident. And that’s the inherent problem with any act of violence. It gets into a mindless loop.

ps: The cop is in the hospital recovering with 50% burns and the auto-rickshaw driver is the police-station, hopefully not getting beaten up.

Kitni Door Jaaoge (How Far Would You Go)

2010-09-15T11:52:00.005+05:30

Some more words paid a visit to somedays ago. They seemed nice to me so I thought of introducing them to you. Let me know if you like them too.

Kitni Door Jaaoge
Kitni Door Jaaoge
Khud Ke Kareeb Aane Ke Liye
Kitni Raahon Pe Chaloge
Apni Manzil Paane Ke Liye

Shaayad Koi Manzil Hai Hi Nahin
Bas Raaste Hi Raaste Hain
Chalte Rehne Me Hi Mazaa Hai
Manzil Paane Mein Nahin

Aur Yunhi Chalte Chalte Ek Din
Chale Jaayoge Hamesha Ke Liye
Khatam Ho Jaayenega Raaste Saare
Poora Ho Jaayega Ye Safar

How Far Would Go (A rough translation in English)
How far would you go
To get close to yourself
How many roads will you travel
To reach your destination

Perhaps there is no destination
Just plenty of roads to travel on,
The pleasure is in the travel itself
And not in finding the destination

And on one of these travels
You will be gone forever
All the roads will come to an end
And so will the travels

Lavz, Khayaal aur Sapne (Words, Thoughts & Dreams)

2010-08-16T15:20:00.013+05:30

Many a times I've unknowingly scribbled a word on my note-pad or a post-it while doing something totally unrelated(to that scribbled word)and perhaps, boring, like sitting in a long corporate meeting.

Those words became my inspiration for the following collection of words.

Lavz, Khayaal Aur Sapne
Kal din ka likha ek lavz
Aaj baar baar keh raha hai,
“Mujhe apne jumle se mila do
Varna panne se mita do”

Kal shaam ko aaya ek khayaal
Aaj dastak dekar bolta hai,
“Huzoor poora toh soch lo mujhe
Ya mila do kisi naye khayaal se”

Kal raat ka dekha ek sapna
Aaj din min bhi aa pahucha hai
Kehta hai,“Kahin jaane na do mujhe
Ek roz haqeeqat se milaana mujhe”

Inhin lavzon, khayaalon, sapnon se
Banti hai meri duniya
Aise hi kuch doston ke saath se
Kat bhi jaayegi yeh duniya

Words, Thoughts and Dreams (A rough translation in English)
A word written yesterday
Comes to me today and says,
‘Join me with my sentence,
Or, erase me from the page.’

A thought from last evening
Knocks today and says,
‘Think me to fruition
Or combine me with a new one.’

A dream from last night
Has come back in the daytime
Says, ‘Don’t let go of me,
Turn me into reality someday.’

Words, thoughts and dreams
Fill up my life with ease
With friends such as these
The world will pass by as a breeze

Dreamtheater

2010-08-11T13:03:00.002+05:30

Last night was remarkable. Another first happened. I saw an entire movie in my dream and remembered each and every detail of it when I woke up. Dreams of such nature have come to me earlier but in a broken manner with my memory failing me when I would wake up.

It belonged to the genre of horror with some abstract elements thrown in. Interestingly, I was both, a part of the movie as one of the characters and a viewer in the theater, simultaneously.

What’s really amazing is the complete nature of the experience. Everything is etched in my memory. The faces of the characters, their expressions, their attire, the background score, the sound of rain falling on the leaves, the lighting, the setting, the smell and color of the flowers, even the exchange of dialogues and shot angles.

I also remember walking out of the theater thinking that it was a good movie that I just saw.

So, I woke up at 7:00 am and immediately scribbled down everything on a sheet of paper (which was a bill of some sort) lying on the bed-side table. I intend to turn it into a proper narrative and then let’s see.

The world of dreams continues to be intriguing, enchanting and entertaining.

My Favorite 10 - Movie Directors

2010-07-13T13:35:00.008+05:30

A movie is the most complex medium of expression and a movie-makers job, extremely difficult. But something even more arduous is to shortlist Top Ten filmmakers of all time. Here’s my attempt at it.

*The list isn’t in any particular order of preference.

Ingmar Bergman (Swedish, 1918 – 2007)
My first exposure to Mr. Bergman’s craft was inside the darkness of a theater at FTII, Pune, some nine years ago. The movie was Wild Strawberries and it turned me on with its unconventional style of story-telling. Since then I’ve watched and re-watched all of his works.
His subtle and understated exploration of the human condition remains unparalleled.
As a tribute to the man, after he passed away, I had written a piece, which you can read here.

Akira Kurosawa (Japanese, 1910 – 1998)
Apart from giving many new techniques and styles to the world of movies, what really makes Mr. Kurosawa a genius, are the range of subjects that he chose and the perfectionism that he sought in each of his movies.
His subjects vary from a glorious take on Shakespeare (Throne of Blood) to an urban story of kidnapping (High and Low) to a story about a maverick doctor (Red Beard). As for the hunt for perfection, consider this trivia: In the final scene of Throne of Blood, in which the central character is shot by arrows, Kurosawa used real arrows shot by expert archers from a short range, landing within centimeters of actor’s body.

Satyajit Ray (Indian, 1921 – 1991)
Watching De Sica’s The Bicycle Thief changed a young Mr. Ray’s life and later, he went on to change the landscape & grammar of movies in India and putting it on the world map. The multi-talented Mr. Ray was easily the biggest creative force to hit India.
Once again, he chose varied subjects and was a stickler for perfection. In fact, he used to draw each frame of the movie before starting the shoot. Little wonder that he was a fan of Mr. Kurosawa. The Japanese auteur too, had great respect for him.

Stanley Kubrick (American, 1928 – 1999)
Mr. Kubrick was all about choosing radically different themes and executing them big. None of his movies are small. They are all meant for the big-screen experience in a theater. He will take you from horror (The Shining) to sci-fi (Space Odyssey 2001) to satire/comedy (Dr Strangelove) to a futuristic world (A Clockwork Orange) with equal finesse and his trademark feeling of enormity. This giant from the world of movies will always stand tall for me.

Alfred Hitchcock (British / American, 1899 – 1980)
Enough has been written about this master of a particular genre. Nobody did it better. And perhaps nobody will be able to do it better.
One of my all time favorite sequences is in the great concept movie, The Birds when the birds start assembling in the school playground for another attack while the kids are singing in chorus inside the classroom during their music class. What a build-up!

Francois Truffaut (French, 1932 – 1984)
The 400 Blows, Mr. Truffaut’s debut, defined the French New Wave and in what a manner it did so. This film critic turned movie director paved way other greats like Godard and Chabrol. The last sequence of another one of his masterpieces, Jules and Jim will stay with any of its viewer forever. Many contemporary good movies like Amelie, Eight Women keep reflecting this man’s impact. Unfortunately, he died at an early age of 52 due to a brain tumor.

Krzysztof Kieslowski (Polish, 1941 – 1996)
This movie giant from Poland had one of the most unique minds. It gets reflected in all his scripts and their executions. Take Three Colors in which he chooses to interpret the French motto of Liberty, Equality & Fraternity in his own unique style. Or take The Decalogue, wherein he gives his own interpretation to The Ten Commandments.
Apart from these popular works, he has many lesser known gems like No End, Blind Chance, Camera Buff…the list is endless.

Federico Fellini (Italian, 1920 – 1993)This man’s movies are a unique combination of memory, dreams, fantasy and desire. He has given a lot to the world of art, movies and even journalism. The adjectives “Fellinian” and “Felliniesque” are synonymous with any kind of extravagant and fanciful image in the cinema and in art in general. As many of would know that the term “Paparazzi” comes from a photographer character in his masterpiece, La Dolce Vita.
Anybody vaguely interested in the world of movies cannot afford to miss Mr. Fellini’s autobiographical classic, 8 ½.

Roman Polanski ( Polish, 1953 – present)
Mr Polanski is another master of psychological thrillers (and sometimes horror). The Apartment Trilogy (Repulsion, Rosemary’s Baby & Tenant), Chinatown and the latest The Ghost Writer just go on to prove this.
Despite going through a very difficult, controversial and a chaotic life (or perhaps because of it) he has continued to make some of the best movies of our times. Rosemary’s Baby remains one of my all time greatest horror movies.

Woody Allen (American, 1935 – present)
His landmark creation Annie Hall gets reflected in contemporary American sitcoms, almost 30 years after the movie was made. He almost never uses newly created music in his movies, opting for the ocean of compositions (varying between Western Classical and Jazz) which are already there in the universe. He has written some of the funniest plays and short stories of the modern times. He is an accomplished Jazz Clarinetist. He has won three Academy Awards and been nominated a total of 21 times. He is Mr. Woody Allen.

There are some other names that were in the short-list and I shall put them up in the comment box. Do share your list if you feel up to it.

Ek Aur Dopeher (Another Afternoon)

2010-06-24T18:19:00.006+05:30

One afternoon, about a month ago, I ended up writing a few lines while having my third cup of Darjeeling. The words are in Urdu and I've tried to do a rough translation in English for my English-friendly friends.

Ek Aur Dopeher
Ek Aur Dopeher Chai Pee Pee Kar Guzaar Di,
Zindagi Ke Pannon Se Thodi Si Zindagi Mita Di

Gaadiyon Ki Gharr Gharr Sadak Se Aati Rahi
Shaam Yunhi Aa Aa Kar Jaati Rahi

Sooraj Apne Ghar Sone Ko Chala
Raat Dheere Dheere Jaagti Gayi

Shamma Har Kinaare Se Chamakne Lagi
Saara Sheher Ek Dulahn Sa Lagne Laga

Chalo Ab Hum Bhi Chal Kar Aaraam Karte Hain
Khaabon Ki Duniya Ke Nazaaron Se Milte Hain

Another Afternoon (A rough translation in English)
Spent another afternoon, between many cups of tea
Spent a bit of life from this Life of me

The whirring of the vehicles kept coming from the street
Evening continued to pass by

The Sun started leaving for its home
The Night started waking up slowly

Lights kept coming up from every corner
City had begun to look like a bride

Now, allow me to retire as well
To experience the world of my dreams

FM in Mumbai

2010-06-15T12:20:00.010+05:30

I have fallen into a new habit these days. While driving to work and back, I listen to the various FM radio stations of Mumbai. Despite their perennially talking RJs (a couple of them are good) who sometimes play a few good songs (the quality of popular music has improved a lot in the last couple of years…a subject which deserves a separate post, altogether) here and there, I am beginning to enjoy the experience for reasons more than just music. Perhaps it’s one of those passing phases, but while I’m at it, let me put down ‘more than just music’ parts of it.

FM stations are one of the best ways to know the pulse of Mumbai. Ranging from traffic updates, to the recent auto-rickshaw strike, to the review of a recent movie release, to a political drama; they cover everything under the Mumbai sun (or rains, these days). You feel like you really belong to the city and moving with its superfast pace.

Then there are some RJs who just speak and do all the right things. The most notable one is RJ Malishka of Red FM. The mix of her finesse with the 3 languages (Hindi, Marathi & English), her presence of mind, her sense of humor and her vibrant energy levels creates a potent cocktail full of punch!

But, amidst getting the pulse of Mumbai and Malishka’s humor, I noticed something rather unfortunate. They don’t mention the poet / lyricist of the song anymore unless it’s a Gulzar Saaheb (as they address him). Whether they are worth mentioning (if it isn’t a Gulzar) is a subject for another discussion. The role of a lyricist (good or bad) in making a song is as important as the musician or the singer(s), so it deserves a mention. In fact, all of us would remember how it used to be (I’m sure AIR / Vibhit Bharti must be still following it) the good old days of radio... ‘Bol Sahir Ludhianvi Ke Hain, Sangeet S.D Burman Ka, Aur Gaaya Hai Geeta Dutt Ne. Film Ka Naam Hai, Pyaasa'.(Lyrics by Saahir Ludhianvi, Music by S.D Burman and sung by Geeta Dutt. The Movie is Pyaasa).

The Ceylon Years

2010-05-15T20:57:00.008+05:30

It has been 21 hours since I left the charming country Sri Lanka for good, to start my third innings in the city of Mumbai. My life will go back to the rush of the big city. But the two years in the tiny, laid-back tropical isle has given me enough pleasant memories to remember, and pleasures to carry forward.

The friends, the food, the Sunday Jazz, the local Arrack, the frequent weekend trips to a pretty resort, the beaches, the easy smiles of the people, the polite air and life in the easy lane. All have become a part of me.

And thanks to the easy life, I picked up 2 great hobbies. SLR photography and playing the guitar...I could always sing, but now I can do it along with strumming the guitar. In fact, a day before leaving the country, I did my first professional studio recording of a song. It came out quite well.

Now, let’s see how the latest Mumbai innings go.

ps: thats a sunrise from the balcony of my ex-apartment in Colombo, taken by Nikon D 60, a few days before I left.

The Other Side Of Goafest, 2010 - Greed & Dirt

2010-04-14T12:11:00.003+05:30

Goafest is the annual meeting of the Indian advertising folks to talk about their craft and give prizes to each other for excellence in creativity. This year, some came back jubilant, most came back tanned and everyone came back happy from Goafest. But, I know of at least two people who belonged to no such category.

Greed
10th April, Saturday afternoon. The free parasailing ride for the Goafest delegates was over by 5 pm. It was then that the cruise service (Jack Cruises) started making money out of it. “Six hundred bucks for each ride….come’ on, hurry up guys (I want to make as many 600’s as I can)”, said the leader of Jack Cruises.

In the resulting confusion, two people, a boy and a girl, rushed to the harness of the parasailing parachute. The man on the steamer (attached to the parachute), at the far end of the sea, started moving ahead, little knowing that there are two people on the harness, instead of the one (which is the usual norm). And perhaps, one not so harnessed.
Next, I saw the two people going up together (along with the pillion) and I said to myself, ‘This isn’t right…something is wrong.’

Seconds later, I saw the girl fall helplessly from a certain height that the sail had taken (approximately, 200 meters). I closed my eyes and reluctantly heard the ‘thud’ sound of a body falling on the beach. A sound, I shall never forget!

Last heard, Jack Cruises have been booked by the law for negligence. Law will take its own course, but I wish they are at least remorseful about what they have caused and accidents like this dont happen in the future.

And the girl is in the ICU, trying hard to recover. I hope she will be able to walk on the beach again.

Dirt
11th April, Sunday morning. The morning after the Goafest got over, I went to Dom’s Shack to have breakfast. I was early and the food wasn’t ready yet. While waiting for the food, I got into a conversation with a gentleman sitting on the next table who was having a cup of tea. I discovered that his name was Mr. Anthony Perera and he was the used to be the Director of Goa Tourism Board at one point in time.

The conversation revolved around how all of us (the advertising fraternity), come to the lovely Cavelossim beach every year, party hard and leave an unclean and messy beach behind. He thinks that soon this beach will also become dirty and messy like the north Goa beaches.

The man was also unhappy about the fact that there aren’t proper sanitation facilities for the 300 odd people who stay at the venue for almost a week to make the festival happen. This may cause harmful disease to spread in the area and can also affect the participants of the Goafest.

Mr. Perera’s concerns left me worried. I hope somebody from the Goafest organizing committee pays attention to this and keep things cleaner next year.

In The Stillness Of This Moment

2010-03-31T00:17:00.006+05:30

in the stillness of this moment
i see a spider on the wall
telling me how often it has
crawled on them all

in the stillness of this moment
i hear a fan whizzing by
narrating the happy times
it has been whizzing by

in the stillness of this moment
i hear a song playing in my head
just for me and noone else
and for that lovely loveliness

in the stillness of the moment
everything stands still
to soak and suck as much as i can
from this life and its drill

A Sweet Deception

2010-03-12T15:40:00.007+05:30

Yesterday, a Father was unable to witness his 8 yr old son perform various activities at the school's annual sports day. He was held at work. He felt bad. He also realized that if the son comes to know that his Daddy couldn’t make it, the little boy will be heartbroken.

So, he made a smart plan.

He managed to reach the son’s school just before the day was coming to a close. He intermingled with the crowd, met his wife and updated himself about the little boy’s antics. Later, he met the son and appreciated the little boy’s efforts.

Now, both of them are happy. And the little boy will perhaps always think that his Daddy was with him that day. Some deceptions can be sweet!

Humbled by Nature

2010-02-16T22:48:00.010+05:30

Last Sunday, I had one of the most outstanding experiences of my life.

The southernmost tip of Sri Lanka is the best place in the world to see blue and sperm whales. It’s remarkable that the world didn’t know about it till 2008. And since then, a sleepy fishing village called Mirissa becomes alive with travelers from distant lands during the whale watching season, which falls between October and April. Many species of Dolphins are also sighted in the area.

About 25 of us from different parts of the world boarded a small boat from Mirissa fishery harbor at 6: 30 am and turned into Captain Ahabs looking for Moby Dick. The Organizers (Mirissa Water Sports Crew) had told us that Lady Luck needs to be happy with us for the whale-sighting to happen. The believers amongst us would have started off on a prayer or two.

The whales are usually seen at 10 -12 nautical miles (about 6kms away) away from the coast of Mirissa, which is about 2 hours into the ocean.

A dull hour and a half passed without any action except that some of us started to get sea sick. The sharp sun and the Titanic type rocking of the boat were adding to their miseries.

Suddenly someone cried, ‘Look there….Dolphin’. And the entire boat sprung into action. All sorts of cameras came out. Life came back in the form of these sprightly, jumping, spinning, happy Dolphins all around us.

I had seen Dolphins in the sea earlier but that totally paled in front of this experience. It was as if hundreds of them had got together to put up a performance for us which they have been practicing for a while. It was as if they were telling us that they are equally happy to see us.

In the span of next 45 minutes we saw some 3 species of Dolphins. Spinner, Bottlenose and Risso’ s The last one is a rare sight and smiles the most.

Then, we moved on to find the world’s largest living species. By now, I was beginning to get sea sick. I had never been in the deep sea and or this long in all my life.

An impatient fellow started yelling, ‘Where is the Whale’? Another pessimist one said in a thick British accent, ‘We maay not see it, after all’.

And then, one of the crew shouted, ‘Whaaaaale’. What I saw next will stay with me for the rest of my life. I stood there, in that rocking boat, completely humbled by nature, yet again.

That Sunday morning, we saw four different blue whales. The fact that I got six good shots (3 of them are here) of them on my newly acquired SLR, is the icing on the cake. The whales and the dolphins were its first few shots. What a start!

A Fake Act

2009-11-26T11:55:00.008+05:30

Usually, I intend to keep this space free of my professional life but this particular episode of a blatant fake-act needs to be documented here.

A few weeks ago I had gone for a summit called ‘A Strategic approach to retailing for brand profitability’, as one of our important clients in Sri Lanka is in the business of Retailing. It was held in one of the 5 star hotels of Colombo and there were two retail masters (as the e-mailer had indicated) from India, doing the talk. R Kannan, President of RAMMS India (a retail solutions company) and Gopi Krishnaswamy, CEO of Insight Instore Research (another company doing the same kind of stuff with offices in India & Singapore) were the retail masters.

Though Mr. Kannan’s session was good but had nothing really revealing on the subject. But it was Mr. Krishnaswamy, the CEO of the Insight Instore Research, who had some really revealing insights.

Through a series of examples from his company’s experiences on various clients across the world, he started making some brilliant points. Examples like once his company, Insight Instore Research, tracked a shopper with a cartful of items, who abandoned the idea of purchasing them because of the waiting time of half an hour at the payment counter’. The point being made is that shoppers hate waiting in the queue.

A bell rang in my mind. Paco Underhill’s ‘Why We Buy’??? But then, I thought, it sounds like a common occurrence at retail stores and Insight Instore research would have perhaps tracked it.

For those who are not aware of Paco Underhill and his extremely interesting book called, ‘Why We Buy – The Science of Shopping’, it’s a very interesting book on the subject indicated by the title of the book. Mr Underhill is the CEO of Envirosell, Inc., a company dedicated to retail research. His clients include Gap, Hallmark, the U.S. Postal Service, Wal-Mart and Starbucks. You can know more about the man and his work over here. Now, thanks to a project for this retail client of ours, I had finished reading this book a week before this retail summit.

But all the subsequent examples put across by Mr. Krishnaswamy kept ringing the same ‘Paco bell’ until it turned into a loud cacophony of many bells (like the prelude to the song ‘Time’ by Pink Floyd) with the final example. It’s the famous example of a lingerie area in a clothes store not doing well because they had kept benches for the bored and waiting husbands, right next to it. (The point here being, the layout of the store is very crucial.)

Once again from Paco Underhill’s study (and mentioned in his book) being passed off as something found out by Mr Krishnaswamy and his Insight Instore research. Minutes later, I was out of the hall where this was happening.

Why? The gentleman could have easily mentioned the correct source of the examples while making the same point. Nothing would have got lost. While now, his image and credibility is lost in my eyes and the eyes of all those who will read this.

My Favorite 10 - Books (Fiction)

2009-10-14T11:53:00.013+05:30

This one wasn’t easy either. It began with 54, came down to 17, and finally, it got stuck at 11. Similarity of the subject in two titles made things easy for me. ‘Brave New World’ lost to ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ (my apologies to Mr. Huxley).

*The parameters remain the same as mentioned in the previous list. a) Its impact on me & b) Longevity

**The list is in no particular order and it.

*** It can change in 10 years time.

1. The Old Man and the Sea: Ernest Hemmingway, 1952
This eternal tale of human being’s undying spirit is short and hard-hitting. The plot is simple. An old fisherman wants to catch the largest marlin ever, one last time.

I have visited the old man Santiago’s life on three occasions and while writing this, I feel like making the fourth visit.

2. The Roads To Freedom Trilogy: Jean Paul Sartre, 1945 – 49
The plot revolves around Mathieu, a Socialist teacher of Philosophy and his set of friends. The time-span is between the Bohemian Paris of 30s to the end of World War II in Europe.

The first part of the trilogy, ‘The Age of Reason’ which talks about Sartre’s idea of freedom as the ultimate aim of human existence, remains a personal favorite. It’s one of those books which have affected me deeply and shaped my thinking in many ways.

3. The Outsider (The Stranger): Albert Camus, 1942
Yet another one from ‘Existentialism’ stable though Mr Camus himself always denied it. Yet another short and hard-hitting one.

And it begins with one of the best possible beginnings. A beginning that sums up the character and the book in just a few sentences, but still makes you want to read more. Consider this:

"Mother died today. Or, maybe, yesterday; I can't be sure. The telegram from the Home says: `Your mother passed away. Funeral tomorrow. Deep sympathy.' Which leaves the matter doubtful; it could have been yesterday."

This debut from Camus is worth many visits. He was just 29 when he wrote it.

4. Nineteen Eighty -Four: George Orwell, 1949
Set in the futuristic (1984) London, this classic dystopian novel depicts a totalitarian regime, which the central character, Winston Smith wants to rebel against. It gave the world many terms and concepts which are commonly used in English. Big Brother, Doublethink, Thoughtcrime and Newspeak have all come from here.

Closer to my profession, it inspired the famous 1984 commercial for Apple Macintosh.

5. Crime & Punishment: Fyodor Dostoyevsky, 1866
I picked up this one from a book-fair at the age of 14 because I had heard about it from the General Knowledge book. The title intrigued my teenage mind and the Russian book fair helped. It kept lying with me unread for years as I could never go beyond a couple of pages.

I got into it again at the age of 24 and this time the pages just kept flipping. It stunned my system with its depiction of mental anguish and moral dilemmas of the central character, Raskolnikov. He murders a hated and unscrupulous pawn-broker for money and also argues that by doing this, he is getting rid of an evil and useless person from this world.

I felt that Dosteyevsky analyzed human mind and heart like no other!

6. The Heart of the Matter: Graham Greene, 1948
This was the first Graham Greene book I read. It encouraged me to read other titles by him only to find out that this one is very different from his other works. Decoding differences between complex human emotions like pity, love, pity misunderstood as love, and pride, it’s a far cry from his usual political espionage novels.

The story revolves around a police officer, Scobie, his relationship with his wife and with a young widow. This Scobie has a feeling of pity for everyone and everything. In Greene’s own words, ' The character of Scobie was intended to show that pity can be the expression of an almost monstrous pride."

*I had a tough time selecting this over another Greene gem, ‘A Burnt Out Case’.

7. Tropic Of Capricorn: Henry Miller, 1938
It’s a raw, seamless, unbridled, flow of emotions and experiences. This semi-autobiographical sequel to the 1934, Tropic Of Cancer was banned in US until 1961. The absolutely no holds barred passages of sexual experiences were too obscene for those times.

However, there are some lovely general (read non-sexual) passages which turn the book into a masterpiece. For example, this memory from his childhood:

"What amazes me, when I look back on it, is how well we penetrated to the essential character of each and every one, young or old...The learning we received only tended to obscure our vision. From the day we went to school we learned nothing; on the contrary, we were made obtuse, we were wrapped in a fog of words and abstractions...What I am thinking of, with a certain amount of regret and longing, is that this thoroughly restricted life of early boyhood seems like a limitless universe and the life which followed upon it, the life of an adult, a constantly diminishing realm...The taste goes out of the bread as it goes out of life. Getting the bread becomes more important than the eating of it. Everything is calculated and everything has a price upon it."

Absolute free flow!

8. Mrs. Dalloway: Virginia Woolf, 1925
It’s about a single day but flows forward and back in time, in and out of character’s minds and the result is an extraordinary novel. At the core is an existentialist description of a bored and rich housewife’s attempt to throw a party, in a post World War I London. On the fringes are other subjects, one of which is the scariest description of mental illness and depression. Having experienced such a disorder at close quarters, I can completely identify with it.

Much later, Michael Cunningham’s novel The Hours (also turned into a brilliant movie by the same name) paid a great tribute to the genius of Ms Woolf.

9. Of Mice and Men: John Steinbeck, 1937
Once again, this was my first exposure to the genius of John Steinbeck and I turned into an immediate fan, reading almost all the other works by him. Perhaps because it’s the first that I read by the author, or because it’s so simple, short and profound, it remains a great favorite.

It’s a tale of two roaming ranch boys and friends, one smart and one not so smart, during the Great Depression in California. The tragic tale narrated in the brilliant Steinbeck style makes it an all time great for me.

*I also enjoyed the Gary Sinise directed movie with the same name.

10. Disgrace: J M Coetzee, 1999
An ageing Professor is broken to pieces before he finds some redemption in his forced acceptance of the realities of life and death. Set in post apartheid South Africa, it has its share of political conflict and situation of the country in the backdrop. But, it’s basically about this guy who has fallen to disgrace, and in the process learns to be a human.

One of the best usages of the language, English I’ve come across. Not a word extra yet conveys a universe!

One spends a lifetime with a book and I relived ten of those while making this list. I hope you like going through it and perhaps share your list.

My Favorite 10 - Music Albums

2009-09-15T15:49:00.016+05:30

As the title suggests, this is the start of a new series called 'My Favorite 10' where in I shall be picking up 10 favorites from the various fields of art. The idea is to share my tastes with my readers and perhaps learn about their tastes. In this process, I may discover things that I have been missing so far.

Limiting it to a 10 isn’t easy by any standards, and this is where the task becomes challenging and exciting.

The first topic has to be about Music, more specifically Music Albums. And my parameters are quite simple:

a) The Effect it had on me: From shaping my musical tastes to the number of days the tape/CD was stuck inside my music system.
b) Longevity: Do I see myself enjoying them, 15 years from now?

*The list is in the chronological order of appearance in my life.

**This list might change in 10 years time.

1. Hum Dono – Jaidev, 1961
This one was a part of my growing up process in the form of a good old magnetic tape, played regularly by my music loving father on our mono National Panasonic cassette player. The classic duet, ‘Abhi Na Jaao Chod Kar’ (Don’t Leave Me Now) still remains an all time favorite and so does the best Bhajan (A Devotional Song) ever made in a Hindi movie, ‘Allah Tero Naam, Ishwar tero Naam’ (You are Allah & You are Jesus Too). This Jaidev masterpiece is an evergreen gem.

Give it to me anytime and it will spread a smile over my face.

2. Famous Waltzes - Johann Strauss, Jr., Composed between 1845 and 1899, Performed by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
This one too, was in the form of a magnetic tape in my house and would always make me happy whenever it was played by my father. Even in that Mono player, its rhythmic nature and multiple small little melodies in one composition would bowl me over. Compositions like ‘The Blue Danube’ and ‘Tales from the Vienna Woods’ have become legendary now, used (and abused) for many narrative purposes, from Movie Soundtracks to TV Commercials.

Today I have the same album in the form of a CD which often gives me a good company on the car journeys.

3. Raga Yaman Kalyan (Ae Ri Aaj Piya Bin) / Raga Darbari (Jhanak Jhanak) – Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, Recorded in early 1980s
One takes you into an evening of pleasure; the other takes you into the depths of night. I am referring to the two Ragas mentioned above.

If I discount my father’s violin sessions, this was perhaps one of the first piece of Indian Classical music that fell into my young ears. Instantly, I became a fan of the man’s voice and singing. I still am.

4. The Dark Side Of The Moon – Pink Floyd, 1973
My first exposure to both psychedelic rock and Pink Floyd (no it wasn’t ‘The Wall’). Right from the beginning sounds of heartbeat, the album gripped me completely. I had never heard anything like that before. I still feel that nothing can begin in a grander fashion than this album With the sounds of the many alarm clocks going off at one time to the almost orgasmic singing of ‘The Great Gig In the Sky’, to the cash registers ringing, everything about was disruptive to my young ears. I must’ve been 14 or 15, then.

Later, when I got down to the lyrics, I was once again enraptured in the similar manner by this great work of art. Definitely worth many visits.
*Much later, I was lucky enough to watch the entire album being performed by Mr. Roger Waters himself.

5. The White Album – The Beatles, 1968
It covers all possible genres. It taps the potential of the three songwriters in the band to the highest extent. And one Disc wasn’t enough to fit in the amount of creativity they produced.

From the whispering ‘Julia’ to the screaming ‘Helter Skelter’ to the wailing ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’, it has everything in it. The Beatles were breaking up but their music had reached newer heights at the foothills of Himalayas, where they were composed most of the tracks.

And, it can always make me that Himalayan high.

6. Blood On The Tracks – Bob Dylan, 1975
This came to me at a phase when I was going through a personal crisis of the ‘heart’ type. The most personal album of Dylan had my sentiments in it. It was as if, the man was singing my songs. It had me captivated for months
*This blog gets its name from one of the tracks in the album.

7. Sticky Fingers – The Rolling Stones, 1971
Well, this is a drug-laden album and I was into it then. It has country, it has blues, it has yearning, it has overdose and it has the essential Stones punch. The sad, drugged, stringy and extremely melodious ‘Moonlight Mile’ is the perfect way to end.

The fact that the Andy Warhol designed cover was one of the most controversial one just adds to the entire charm.

8. Rumors – Fleetwood Mac, 1977
This everlasting magic came to me through a windfall from someone who wanted to get rid of all his magnetic tapes as he had moved into the digital zone. (And, I’m glad he did so)

I had heard a few of the popular FM track before, but this album was a revelation, a sort of magic. The sophisticated compositions, the depth of the lyrics, the mix of the vocals, drums & the guitar, everything is perfect. Not a single track can be forwarded.

This essential 70s album will always work for me.

9. Astral Weeks – Van Morrison, 1968
I’ve been meaning to write about this one for a long time now, but I’ve always been successful. I am at loss of words when it comes to appreciating this surreal, seamless confluence of poetry, music and singing woven together. And Mr. Morrison was all of 23 when he created it! I will die peacefully if this is playing on my death-bed.

For a beautiful write-up on the album by Mr. Lester Bangs, the music journalist you can go here.

On a personal note, I found a precious friend while absorbing this album along with whiskey.

10. Kind of Blue – Miles Davis, 1959
Its slow, its gentle, its luxurious, it’s a lazy afternoon, it’s Kind of Blue. The finest Jazz album ever, by the genius who shaped the genre. And, the band helping him had stalwarts like Coltrane, Bill Evans, Paul Chambers, Jimmy Cobb and Cannonball Adderley. Out of this world!

One can just keep on listening to this one, day after day, year after year, life after life.

That sums up the first edition My Favorite 10. It’s rather long and I had a very tough time selecting them (leaving out one to include another). But I also enjoyed doing it and I hope you will enjoy reading it. And, do mention your favorite Albums.

The Colors Of Joy

2009-08-24T12:14:00.016+05:30

It rained last evening. Windy, angular rains. I watched, mesmerized.

Minutes later, a half hearted sun sneaked up, adding colors to the Colombo sky and our hearts.

ps: pics taken from Nokia E 63

The Tinkerer of Rock & Roll

2009-08-19T11:42:00.010+05:30

Neil Young swears by it and so does Slash. Joe Perry of Aerosmith has 50 of them.

I’m referring to the Les Paul Gibson, the solid-body electric guitar which made the sound of rock and roll possible. Its creator Les William Polsfuss, also known as Les Paul died on 13th of August, 2009 at the age of 94.

He was also a musician, song-writer and an amateur sound engineer. Among Paul's other technological innovations were developments in multi-track recording, guitar effects and the mechanics of sound in general.

Here is how some of the legends from the world of music paid their tributes:

"Les Paul set a standard for musicianship and innovation that remains unsurpassed. He was the original guitar hero, and the kindest of souls. Last October I joined him onstage at The Iridium club in NYC, and he was still shredding. He was and still is an inspiration to us all." — Joe Satriani

"I am deeply saddened by the passing of Les Paul. His influence on my life, as on the lives of countless others, will be felt throughout eternity. It was an honor to know him and to work with him. I extend my deepest condolences to his family and will mourn along with musicians throughout the world." — Jose Feliciano

"Les Paul was a shining example of how full one's life can be, he was so vibrant and full of positive energy. I'm honored and humbled to have known and played with him over the years, he was an exceptionally brilliant man." — Slash

"Without Les Paul, we would not have rock and roll as we know it. His inventions created the infrastructure for the music and his playing style will ripple through generations. He was truly an architect of rock and roll." — Terry Stewart, president and CEO of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum

Paul was an inveterate tinkerer. In a 2005 interview, speaking on the subject of death, Paul, with his wry sense of humor said, ‘If where I’m going they have a harp, I’m going to amplify it.’

ps: Thats a 1959 Les paul Gibson. The first Les Paul Standard was introduced in 1959 and since then the model has remained unchanged.

pps: And this new look results from the desire of changing things, which keeps hitting me every now and then. And what better time to make this change than a birthday.

The Unfriendly yaari.com

2009-07-08T12:17:00.007+05:30

A couple of months ago I got this mail (Type 1) in my inbox.

XYZ wants you to join Yaari!
Is XYZ your friend?
Yes, XYZ is my friend! No, XYZ isn't my friend.
Please respond or XYZ may think you said no :(
Thanks,
The Yaari Team

* For my non-hindi friends, 'yaari' means 'friendship'.

Unfamiliar to the ways of social networking sites and wanting to make the sad look turn into a smile (for I really thought it was a personalized message from XYZ), I ended up clicking (just one click) on Yes, XYZ is my friend! Little did I know that I had clicked on a 'public embarrassment' and a 'constant source of irritation'.

The result of the click was a window of yaari.com which wanted me to enlist by giving my mail id etc. that’s where I committed the greatest folly of my life. I enlisted.

A day later, I started getting mails (Type 2) like this.

dear meraj
I am a friend but do not feel comfortable getting into multiple groups like yaari and hence have not responded.
warm regards
PQR

What the overfriendly people of 'The Yaari Team' had done was something extremely rude. Without my permission, it generated a Type 1 mail and sent to almost everyone on my Gmail mailing list. Now, a) I’m not the social networking types and b) Even if I was, I would not be sending such a lame and soppy message to everybody on my mailing list.

The Type 2 mail hasn’t stopped since then (some have also accepted my fake invitation in the meantime). It’s like a monster that has been created because I got myself into the unfriendly ways of yaari.com.

Internet, with all its amazing positives has its share of flaws which can be extremely disgusting. I would request all my readers to be cautious about such unfriendly sites. I am.

Michael Jackson (1958 - 2009)

2009-06-26T11:21:00.008+05:30

The opening bars of Billie Jean always make me feel like I’m getting into a disco (though I’m not much of a dancer) with the promise of a great night lying ahead. Thriller was one of my first music albums.

One of the greatest pop icons of modern times, Michael Jackson, died today at the age of 50. Speaking strictly for myself, I was never a big fan of the fellow’s music except for the album, Thriller which is a classic, and a few songs here and there.

He lived a strange life, surrounded by controversies, diseases and the many makeovers.
But, he (along with Madonna and Wham) made English popular music a mass product for a generation of Indians. Before him, English music was limited to a few urban audiences. After his album ‘Bad’, every kid was doing the moonwalk with a poster of BAD hanging from the wall of his / her room.

Starting at the early age of 5, musically, he drew influences from Soul, Soft Rock, R&B, Pop and Jazz. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice and had 13 Grammys and 13 Number One Singles. These are some telling statistics, indicating his role and influence in music and popular culture.

He will be remembered by many.

ps: for a visual tribute to the deceased icon, you can go here

Dylan's Latest

2009-06-10T13:44:00.013+05:30

It’s not a classic alright, but it’s worth several whiskey-soaked visits. Together Through Life, the 33rd studio album from Mr. Bob Dylan once again displays his poetic genius. Its beauty, depth and the range of emotions grows on each hearing.

Musically, it has the same flavour as the last few albums (Modern Times, Time Out Of Mind), that of urban American blues. And his voice, gruffer than ever, adding the right character to the lyrics. Put some great guitar fills by Mike Campbell (Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers) and soulful accordion sighs of David Hidalgo (Los Lobos) and the album surely has a very long ‘CD tray value’.

Poetically, the album is wry, caustic, sentimental, rich, wicked and very American . My favourites are, the sentimental ‘Life is Hard’, the conversational, ‘Forgetful Heart’, the violin laced (like the 'Desire' days), 'This Dream Of You' and the wickedly satirical final track, ‘It’s All Good’.

These last lines from ‘Forgetful Heart’ conveys the feeling of the ultimate defeat.

“All night long I lay awake and listen to the sound of pain

The door has closed through ever more
If indeed there ever was a door”

Or, feel the pain in the beautifully sung ‘Life Is Hard’.

“The sun is sinking low
I guess it's time to go
I feel a chilly breeze
In place of memories
My dreams are locked and barred
Admitting life is hard
Without you near me”

At 68, the man continues to be the greatest songwriter of our time.

18th May, 2009

2009-05-22T11:19:00.005+05:30

On 18th May, 2009 the Sri Lankan Government declared its victory over the rebel Tamil Tigers after almost three decades of war. The streets of Colombo broke into celebrations, processions, flags, fire-crackers, drums. And, we were there witnessing probably the biggest day in Sri Lankan history. Many years from now, I shall be recounting this and saying, “I was there, experiencing the historical moment.”

Amidst celebrations, the cynics wait and watch on how the President and his Government find a political solution to the situation. But it was our house-maid, Karuna, who came out with real words of wisdom.

She said (in her broken English), “It is not nice to celebrate so much when so many people have died and been displaced in the road towards victory. People should also maintain five minutes of silence for all the lives lost in the process.”

I couldn’t help but agree.

Together Through Life

2009-05-03T09:05:00.014+05:30

Yesterday, Pooja and I completed one year of marital togetherness and its been sweet, spicy and harmonious.

Interestingly, Mr Robert Allen Zimmerman, popularly known as Bob Dylan released his 33rd studio album called, 'Together Through Life' on 28th April, 2009. The album is already topping the charts.

A review of the album will follow soon.

Perhaps I should ask Pooja to review our 'One Year Of Togetherness'.

ps: thats us in the form of 'Happy Feet'

Happy To Be Wrong

2009-04-16T16:00:00.010+05:30

In one of my previous posts I mentioned (in a rather worried manner) about the dwindling interest from both audience and budding musicians in Western Classical music. I was wrong.

Two stories covered by BBC World News between yesterday and today made me realize this.

The first one was about how a publicly financed music education program in Venezuela which helps youngsters from extremely impoverished background, learn Classical music of Bach and Beethoven. The program is called El Sistema and it’s been running successfully for more than 30 years now. The program keeps these youngsters away from getting into wasteful and criminal activities like drugs and mugging and instills the ‘joy of music’ in their lives.

The Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra, a product of the program has been getting rave reviews across the world from the critics and all the top rated musicians. To know more about this wonderful effort you can read this piece from BBC News.

Can we replicate the same model in India to give a boost to its own Classical music? In my mind, it can be a great way of discovering genuine talent hidden in the teaming pool of poverty in our country (40% of India lives Below Poverty Line, i.e. $1.25 a day). It may, along with the 'joy of music' give them a source of income.

The second story was about using a product of modern times to popularize Classical music. The result is the YouTube Symphony Orchestra.

The video-sharing website held a contest that allowed anyone, anywhere to upload a clip of themselves playing. A selection went to a popular vote. 90 winners from 30 different countries were flown in to play at Carnegie Hall, New York - one of the most prestigious venues in the world. The musicians came from as far away as Australia and South Korea.

The performance which happened yesterday was a great success with the Orchestra playing the works of Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Prokofiev and a new composition, appropriately called, ‘Internet Symphony No 1’. To know more about it you can read this article from NYT.

Great way to make classical music reach a wider audience, especially the young people!

Now, I’m less worried...feel like listening to Debussy's 'Claire de lune'.

A Yellow Evening

2009-03-21T18:52:00.004+05:30

Outside, the yellow Colombo evening is slowly turning into night.

Inside, the Vilambit of Pt Bhimsen Joshi’s classic Yaman Kalyan rendition, 'Eri Aaj Piya Bin' is melodiously proceeding towards Drut.

My cup of that perfect Darjeeling Tea has one-fourth left in it.

In times such as this, one comes very close to attaining eternal bliss.

The Vilambit now, has beautifully melted into Drut and a slight smile has spread over my face. Let me enjoy this.

The Unfinished Ones

2009-03-12T19:48:00.007+05:30

During the long span of silence on this space, I’ve written many unfinished posts on the pages of my mind. Now, there is an arrear of posts stacked inside and I’ve got to clean them up before I start on a fresh one. So, here they are.

The slow beauty and grace of Naguib Mahfouz’s ‘The Cairo Trilogy’ which kept me enraptured for 3 months

The joy of discovering Orhan Pamuk’s brilliance through his political but humane novel, ‘Snow’

Several Sunday Jazz afternoons at Barefoot with Rohit, appreciating the music, trying to catch the stories floating around, while sipping on white

The splendor of Colombo’s English theater in the form of a great adaptation of Shakespeare called, ‘Hamlet at Elsie’s Bar’
The happiness of watching the inspiring tale of human spirit, ‘The Diving Bell and the Butterfly’
Alexi Murdoch’s lovely album called ‘Time Without Consequence’ which gave us the musical company on our way back from Mirissa
The conversations with Pooja’s grandfather on subjects like ‘Money, ‘Profession’, ‘Life after Retirement’ etc.

Now, it feels like I’m ready to move on.

Poet Gulzar

2009-01-26T23:18:00.008+05:30

The poet Gulzar is a great creative mind. His genius, once again gets reflected in two songs for the movie Slumdog Millionaire, ‘Ringa Ringa Ringa’ and ‘Jai Ho’. The latter has picked up an Oscar nomination and is likely to get the award too. Some lines from ‘Jai Ho’ are enough to reflect his genius.

The song appears at the end of the movie and fades into the credits. Mr Boyle’s idea was to give a Bollywood style, song and dance finish. The song is about a lover asking his beautiful love interest to meet up in this beautiful night.

Aaja Aaja Jinde Shaamiyaane Ke Tale

Zariwaale Neele Aasmaan Ke Tale

Come beneath life’s canopy

Come beneath the embroidered blue sky

Make note of how he describes a starry night…Zariwaale Neele Aasmaan Ke Tale. One can start seeing a star studded night even if one is listening to the song at mid-day .

Or, notice the metaphor in this one...

Chakh Le, Chakh Le

Ye Raat Shahad Hai

Taste it, Taste it

This night is like honey

The man never ceases to make me happy. Ive tried to capture his genius in one of my earlier posts also. You can read it here.

ps: thats a nice sketch of a young Gulzar which i found on Google images. the artist's name wasnt mentioned.

Rumpeteer Tilak

2009-01-24T23:50:00.008+05:30

Two underdog stories are shaking the world right now. One real life and the other reel life. One is called Barrack Obama and the other, Slumdog Millionaire. I didn’t see the inauguration ceremony of Mr Obama but I have seen and heard Danny Boyle’s several Oscar nominated ‘Slumdog Millionaire’. It’s a visual and aural delight. Golden Globe has already given several nods to the movie, including the OST by A R Rahman and I’m sure Oscars will do the same.

Being a Rahman fan ever since his path-breaking creation Roja, I’m delighted. The soundtrack of ‘Slumdog…’ has been playing in my system for the last 3 weeks and I’ve been tripping on each track, one by one. My current favorite is the track called ‘Mausam & Escape’ with some brilliant Sitar work in it.

During the same time when Slumdog’s music was creating ripples at the Globes and across the globe, I managed to pay a charming tribute to Rahman’s genius in my own little way. I turned into a music director guiding a Sri Lankan trumpeter (locally pronounced ‘RUMPETEER’) to play the Rahman composed Airtel signature tune in the ‘Papre Band’ manner. This was for the radio jingle which was a part of the launch of Airtel in Sri Lanka. My agency just accomplished the task of the launch.

In Sri Lanka, Papre band consists of a drummer and a RUMPETEER. They are usually found at the Cricket matches cheering the local team and they are loud and irritating, mostly.

The RUMPETEER of this story is called Tilak and he is a part of the Police band of Colombo. I made him rehearse inside closed doors for 30 minutes and he was ready for the recording. It just took him two takes to deliver the perfect rendition. After which, he politely collected his 5 K SLR and faded into oblivion. This particular jingle went on to become very popular and many Sri Lankans came up to me to say that they enjoyed it.

The fact that Mr Rahman will never know about this little episode makes it all the more charming.

For a better 2009

2008-12-31T16:42:00.007+05:30

We are living amidst difficult times. Here's wishing everyone a happy, peace filled and better year.

ps: thats 'Flowers for New Year', an oil on canvas by the famous Vietnamese artist, Ha Huynh My. i would like to put it on the wall of my living room.

Three Weeks Later

2008-12-17T14:06:00.009+05:30

Three weeks have passed and the city (where I was living just six months ago) has returned to normalcy, they say. Much has been written about the despicable and terrifying ordeal that Mumbai and its people were once again subjected to. I’m listing some of the views which resonated with me.

An Angry Moslem

A rational look at certain silly reactions from some Indians

A Worried American

A Thinking Indian

A sane voice from Pakistan

As for me, I’m ashamed of my identity at two levels. As a Human Being and as a Moslem.

A day after the ordeal ended, I watched the lovely Irish musical film, Once and felt better. The fact that the same species which can take so many innocent lives has the ability to create something so delicate & beautiful amazes me. It also fills me with hope for us and the world.

ps: thats the now wounded Taj Mahal Hotel from a 1903 postcard

Nanhi Pujaarin

2008-11-24T12:02:00.008+05:30

My parents came and stayed with us for a period of 3 weeks and it was good. During their stay we covered quiet a bit of this beautiful island country. One such trip was to Nuwara Eliya, the beautiful hill-station city famous for its tea-estates.

Amongst many other pleasurable experience of the trip was the good quality of tea available at the smallest of the joints. The long and winding roads stretching across the hills and clouds were full of tiny shops selling plain-tea some eats. At one such shop where we had stopped for ‘chai’ or ‘the’ (in Sinhala); I met an angel called Sevandhi Kumari. She gave me a red flower while her mother prepared tea for us. This post and the following classic poem of Majaaz are dedicated to her.

The lovely imagery and water-like simplicity of the poem is spellbinding. I’ve also attempted a sort of translation (which isn’t very good) of the poem but that will come later. First, meet ‘Nanhi Pujaarin’.

Nanhi Pujaarin

Ek nanhi-munni si pujarin
patli Bahein,patly garden
Bhor bhaye mandir mein aayee hai
Aaayee nahin maa laayee hai
Waqt se pahle jaag uthi hai
neend abhi aankhon mein bhari hai
Thodi tak lat aayee huee hai
yun hee si lahraayee hue hai

Aankhon par taron ki chamak hai
Mukharre par chandee ki jhalak hai
Dhoop chdhhe taraa chamkaa hai
Pathhar par ek phool khila hai
Chand ka tukra ,phool ki daali
kamsin, seedhi, bholi bhali
Kaan mein chandi ki baali hai
haath mein peetal ki thaali hai

Dil mein lekin dhyaan nahin hai
poojaa ka kuchh gyaan nahin hai
kaisi bholi aur seedhi hai
mandir ki chhat dekh rahi ahi
Maa barh kar chutki leti hai
chupke chupke hans deti hai
Hansana Rona uska majhab
usko pooja se kya matlab
khud to aayee hai mandir mein
Man uska gudiya ghar mein

Tiny Worshipper (for those who dont know Urdu/Hindi)

A tiny worshipper
Thin arms and a thin neck
Has come to the temple early morn
Actually been pulled by her Maa (Mother)
Woken up before her usual time
Sleep hanging in her eyes
Tresses falling till her chin
Swaying in the morning breeze

Eyes sparkling like the stars
Face shining like the moon
A star shining in the daytime
Or a flower budding on stone
Moonstone, Rosebud, Young & innocent
Silver ring in the ear
Bronze plate in hands

But got no interest in prayers
Got no knowledge of religion
She stares at the temple ceiling
With eyes innocent and sweet
Maa caresses her softly
And she laughs gently
Smiles & Tears are her religion
Got nothing to do with prayers
Has come to the temple somehow
But her heart is inside the doll-house

The red flower, now dry, still lies in my car. On my next trip to Nuwara Eliya, I shall stop at the same tea-joint for that angel and a refreshing cup of tea.

Cinema Paradiso

2008-10-31T17:10:00.015+05:30

Being a lover of movies and its ways, I immediately fell for this one. It’s a charming account of a movie theater located in a freshly independent Indian town. The town is the modern day Trivandrum in Kerela and the writer, a septuagenarian reminiscing those days, using today’s tools like the computer and internet. His name is Prof Gopakumar K. and he lives in Trivandrum. The abrupt nature, interesting details and subtle wit of the description adds to the charm.

I’m putting the piece in this space, exactly the way it was written, with the old gentleman’s permission. Get charmed!

1948: Sreekumar Theatre, Railway Station Road. Inaugurated.

Went with Appuchettan. 1st film MGM Technicolor, Bathing Beauty - Esther Williams . Only English movies. Every 3rd day there was a change. 15 Films a month. Other theatres were thatched sheds. Accommodated viewers on the floor (thara ticket). Then, on foldable wooden chairs. Rattan chairs in upper classes. Lice were carried home after the show.

But Sreekumar was a permanent hall. Viewers sat on numbered chairs fixed in rows. Cushion seat in the balcony classes. Rates stared like this: 4 1/2 annas (28 paise) - 10 annas ( 63 ps ) , Re 1 ( British Rupee ) & Rs 1 1/2 . The next 2 classes were in the balcony (upstairs) Rs 2 & Rs 2 1/2 ( separate cubicles ie Boxes ) . There were 3 boxes with 8 upholstered chairs in each. The middle one - The Royal Box was exclusive for the Maharajah & others from the Kowdiyar Palace. On days when Chithira Thirunal (the local King) came there was no Interval.

For keeping cycles 1/4 anna -1 anna = 6 naya paise (ie 1/100th of a Rupee). Cars were parked outside - no parking fee. 1 or 2 motor cycles / no scooters were seen in the car parking area. No Autos in those days. Till 1957 there was season ticket system for students (above 18). Students were spared from submitting any proof like photo ID or admission form countersigned by the Principal .The theatre people trusted the student community. Girl students were not issued with the concession - only accompanied women & girls were allowed.

1st show at 6:30 pm to 8.30 & the 2nd 9.30 - midnight. No A/C & standby generator. People smoked. Once outside after the show one could smell tobacco smoke in the dress. Tea Coffee & Cigarettes were sold at the stall outside .Fairly long printed synopsis were given free. I had season ticket 1953 -1957 Collected about 700 synopses. Still photographs of coming films were exhibited.

There was a pink curtain which rose slowly to the Spnish Gypsy song played on guitar. Then the famous Tamil song of K B Sunderambal (Njarapazhathe pizhundu) when Lord Subrahmonian’s slide was shown. Then came the Maharajah`s welcome etc. Started with Film Division’s B&W news reel. Ads in still slides during the interval.

Teachers in English encouraged students to read THe Hindu Paper & the films at Srikumar. Student Politics not popular. Today we have the TV & computer. In those days we knew more about the Holywood stars - Ava Gardner, Ingrid Bergmann , Elezabath Taylor . Charlie Chaplin Marlan Brando, Bing Crosby, Kirk Douglas & so on.

ShreeKumar theater still stands on Railway Station Road in Trivandrum, showing Malayalam movies of the day. The ticket price is around Rs 50/- and the place is equipped with AC and dts.

ps: thats the poster of that 1944 musical, Bathing Beauty

Shubho Bijoya!

2008-10-09T23:32:00.009+05:30

Last evening, after much deliberation over the titles from my library, I picked up Ray’s classic, ‘Devi’, unaware of the coincidence of it all.

The movie, based on a short story by Prabhat Kumar Mukhopadhya, is set in 19th century Bengal and deals with highly prevalent superstition system in India. It begins with Shubho Bijoya and throughout the movie Maa Durga is main protagonist along with a very young and virginal Sharmila Tagore in her first major role; and Ray’s regular Soumitra Sen. Durga, in Hindu mythology is the demon-fighting form of Lord Shiva’s wife. Despite all my temptations, I’m not going to give away the plot as it will spoil the fun of those who haven’t seen this classic yet.

Today morning, I woke up to hear and see the celebrations of Vijay Dashmi across India, on NDTV. I began smiling to myself. Away from the country, I had completely forgotten about today’s significance.

Because I have a bit of Bengali blood in me I’d like to wish all of you in the typical Bengali manner. Shubho Bijoya Dashumi!

ps: thats the poster of the movie

Eid Mubarak!

2008-10-01T14:47:00.007+05:30

An excerpt from a letter I wrote to my mother a year ago in an attempt make her see my point of view regarding a situation.

"Religion, in the strict sense of God, Priests, Rituals, Chanting etc doesn’t figure anywhere in my philosophy. But religion in the cultural context is something which I appreciate and enjoy. The beauties of the Moslem culture like the language Urdu, Shaayari, Clothes, Biryani, Qawwalis, Architecture etc are the aspects which appeal to me. They make me feel proud about belonging to such a rich culture. In fact, I think that you have a good role to play in this. I can trace back my love and understanding of Urdu Shaayari to you. Your love for masters like Faiz, Iqbal, Ghalib and Mehendi Hasan etc has seeped into my system too."

This excerpt has certain relevance today as we are celebrating Eid in the true cultural style of Moslems. Pooja is attempting Biryani for the first time in her cooking career. My contributions so far has been buying Kohinoor Basmati Rice, Chopping Onions, Crushing pepper, playing the right kind of music and moral support.

Interestingly, and to my best knowledge, none of the major Urdu poets with the exception of Josh Malihabadi, came up with a good Sher for Eid. There are many anonymous ones though. The one which has been highly abused, especially by Hindi movies is this. Its quiet easy to understand so I don’t need to translate it.

'Eid' kaa din hai gale aaj to lag jaa zaalim
Rasm-e-duniyaa bhii hai mauqaa bhii hai dastuur bhii hai

To find what Josh has to say on the subject, you can go here.

ps: will let you know how the Biryani turned out to be. the picture shows its beginnings.

Weekend Pursuits

2008-09-14T19:37:00.016+05:30

THE DARK KNIGHT
Despite Rohit’s misgivings playing somewhere in my mind, I decided to watch a movie in a Colombo theater for the histrionics of Heath Ledger as the Joker.

This Chris Nolan’s second attempt at Batman is almost 3 hours long with an utterly stupid script and equally silly dialogues. But, what elevates the movie from its insipidity is Mr Ledger’s performance as a ‘crackpot with a sense of humor’. It’s unfortunate that he died just when he was beginning to show his true colors.

When a dark character is played by a fabulous actor, he becomes the center of attention instead of the hero (remember Jack Nicholson as the earlier Joker or Amjad Khan as Gabbar Singh). This is true for this edition of Batman too. I won’t be surprised if the Academy decides to give best actor to Mr. Ledger.

The other bright side of this experience was the fact that Colombo theaters serve beer at their F&B counters.

SHINE A LIGHT
Martin Scorsese has always been a big fan of The Rolling Stones and it gets reflected in almost all his feature films. In 2006, he decided to do a full length documentary filming the band’s ‘A Bigger Bang’ tour performance at New York and smartly editing it with each of the band member’s capsules from the past.

In one such edit he shows a shot from a 1967 interview of Mick Jagger in which he is saying, ‘You know, I never thought we would be doing this music thing for more than a year or two and I’m surprised that we are still doing so’. The band was 3 years old then.

Next shot is that of Jagger jumping around with ‘Jumping Jack Flash’ in 2006, at the age of 63. The Band had beed around for 42 years. Amazing!

A must watch for any Stones fan, Scorsese fan or for that matter, anybody. In fact, my wife who isn’t too enthusiastic about rock music saw herself getting mesmerized by the raw energy of the 60 years old rock stars.

GIVE ME THE NIGHT
Hearing this forgotten George Benson classic on the car radio found me acquiring 3 of his finest albums, ‘Give Me the Night’, ‘The Other Side of Abbey Road’ and ‘Givin’ it Up (with Al Jarreau). I would strongly recommend ‘The Other Side…’ for open-minded Beatles fans. Mr Benson’s sophisticated, jazz-guitaring and smooth vocals does wonders to McCartney-Lennon compositions.

PS: Thats one of the best logos i know of

Inspired

2008-08-30T11:49:00.005+05:30

A lovely rain is making everything wet in Colombo and things look dreamy from my balcony. The coffee smells good and Pooja is making cheese omelet, while David Bowie sings ‘Heroes’.

Looks like it will be an easy Saturday for us, while many in the world struggle with their difficulties.

My young inspirations are 2 kids of nine and seven. You can get to know them over here and here.

ps: thats the view from my balcony...can you see the rain?

One Night in the Life of Meraj Hasan

2008-08-05T22:38:00.013+05:30

Years ago, I discovered him on a wintry night train between Varanasi and Gaya. He was a battered prisoner inside a Soviet labor camp of the 1950s in Siberia. And I was a berthless traveler in the general compartment of the train, facing the December chill of the great North Indian plains. But, he was facing much harsher temperatures.

The person I discovered that night was the Nobel Prize winning Russian author, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in the form of a novella called, ‘One Day in the life of Ivan Denisovich’. Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn died 2 days ago of a heart attack at the age of 89. And this is an attempt to pay my homage to the great writer.

The book is about the harsh realities of Stalin era when people in Russia were sent to the Labor Camps under the Gulag system for any or no offence. Solzhenitsyn was exiled to one, and he came out of it with this semi-autobiographical book which described one day in the life of a prisoner called Ivan Denisovich Sukhov or simply ‘Sukhov’. The book has all the abilities to disturb anyone about human cruelty and appreciate human endurance. It came out in 1962 with the consent of Nikita Krushchev who wanted the world to know about the extreme conditions under the Stalin era. The 150 odd pages of this classic shook the world!

Later, I went on to read other brilliant works of Solzhenitsyn but that chilly train journey with ‘Sukhov’ will always be intact somewhere in the attics of my mind. The Siberian temperatures in the book along with the increasing chill of the night had me completely frozen, despite a sweater and a jacket.

To give you a comparison, the mercury reading outside would be about 3-5 degree Celsius. And the temperature inside the book was -40 degree Celsius. I can’t even start to think of such conditions.

That is Solzhenitsyn with a saintly look and beard.

Good Morning!

2008-07-27T12:29:00.007+05:30

Certain mornings begin in the most perfect way. Let me talk about one such morning. It was a morning when ‘Little Martha’ got stirred with ‘Darjeeling Tea’ along with the mild morning breeze.

‘Little Martha’ is a 2 minutes 7 seconds beauty from the 1972 album, Eat a Peach by The Allman Brothers Band. It’s also the last composition by the legendary Duanne Allman, the bandleader who died shortly after recording the track, because of a motorcycle accident. He was all of 24. Extremely unfortunate as the world would have got so many more beauties from him. Rolling Stone magazine names Duanne as number two on their list of the greatest guitarists of all time. Number one is anybody’s guess.

The song is an instrumental duet composed in the minimalist finger picking style, played on acoustic guitars by Duanne and band mate Dicky Betts. Its simple melody and fullness has always made me happy and craving for more. This morning was no different.

Leo Kottke, the famous acoustic guitarist rightly called it "the most perfect guitar song ever written."

To my extreme displeasure, Darjeeling Tea is not available in Colombo. Perhaps it’s on account of the country’s very own Ceylon Tea. Which is better is a subject suitable for another post.

So, my recent business trip to Delhi saw me carrying back packs of ‘First Flush’ Darjeeling Tea or ‘The Champagne of Teas’, which is its other name. And, this morning I woke up to the gentle pleasures of light color, aroma and taste of one of the finest creations of man. I cultivated my taste for tea because of my parents, specially my father’s deep interest in the subject.

The art and science of Darjeeling Tea is exquisite. Like single malts vary from each region of Scotland, Teas from each estate of Darjeeling has a unique taste, flavor and aroma to it. When properly brewed, any Darjeeling yields thin-bodied, light-colored liquor with a floral aroma. ‘First Flush’ is the first produce harvested in mid-March following spring rains. Then you have ‘In Between’, ‘Second Flush’, ‘Monsoon’ and ‘Autumnal Flush’. For me, First Flush works the best, especially as the first tea in the morning. To know more on the subject you can go go here.

The mild morning breeze is always beautiful.

So, this morning, the three element came together to create that perfect start.

ps: above is a painting called 'Morning Tea' by Margaret Olley, Australias finest still life painter

A Dolphin with Chianti

2008-05-28T11:44:00.007+05:30

We met a dolphin from these waters.

She came with a smile and the classic Chianti from Tuscany.

We talked about her animals, my music, her tennis days, my search-days, the class hang-ups and the mass realities, the short stature and tall nature, the greediness and the bare necessities.

And it all ended with Pooja’s favorite chocolate dessert and warm hugs.

Thanks, Dolphin…and keep smiling.

For the record, I'm temporarily leaving my country to stay at a small island towards the south. Today is my last day in Bombay and I'm getting sentimental.

ps: Thats 'Chianti Wines' by Gounod Romandy, an Italian painter of the 30's

Why was I missing from here?

2008-05-15T02:06:00.010+05:30

Because I was busy getting hitched. Pooja and I got married in the modest ambiance of a court in Mumbai on 2nd of May, 2008. Being a person who is uncomfortable with tentativeness in all affairs, I love the finality of it. A certain calmness is giving me a gentle embrace.

As always, the 'Pulitzer man' has something for this occasion too. Its appropriately called 'Wedding Song' and appears in the 1974 album, 'Planet Waves'. A few lines from the song.

I love you more than ever, more than time and more than love,
I love you more than money and more than the stars above,
Love you more than madness, more than waves upon the sea,
Love you more than life itself, you mean that much to me.

Ever since you walked right in, the circle's been complete,
I've said goodbye to haunted rooms and faces in the street,
To the courtyard of the jester which is hidden from the sun,
I love you more than ever and I haven't yet begun.

You breathed on me and made my life a richer one to live,
When I was deep in poverty you taught me how to give,
Dried the tears up from my dreams and pulled me from the hole,
Quenched my thirst and satisfied the burning in my soul.

The picture above is of our feet inside a pristine and ancient pond that we found on one of our jaunts into the wilderness. We call it 'Happy Feet'.

Paths of Victory

2008-04-09T16:31:00.008+05:30

While the Swedish Academy still mulls over the question, the Pulitzer Board has finally taken a call.

After being nominated 6 times for Nobel Prize in Literature, the man gets a nod from the literary sorts of his homeland. Bob Dylan gets the 2008 ‘Special Pulitzer’ for his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power.

Dylan becomes the first 'rock'n'roll Honorary Pulitzer winner, joining the likes of other musical greats like George Gershwin, Thelonious Monk (both of whom were given the Honorary Pulitzer posthumously) and Duke Ellington (whom the jury had voted for the Pulitzer for Music Award in 1965 but the board refused).

Congratulations!

How would the man himself react to this? Perhaps, in the form of these lines from his 1991 song, ‘Paths of Victory’.

Trails of troubles,

Roads of battles,

Paths of victory,

I shall walk.

ps: The picture above is from the The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan days, which will be...1963.

Interpretation of a Nightmare

2008-03-25T20:37:00.007+05:30

Last night was a disturbed one for me with a nightmare infested sleep (or lack of it). I saw myself surrounded by dead bodies of Oriental origin. I was struggling to put them in a big container, one by one when I woke up to a very dry throat and an exhausted body. I couldn’t go back to a proper sleep for the rest of the night.

True to its authoritarian ways, China is being unreasonable in a violent manner with the ‘Free Tibet’ movement and it leaves me highly disturbed. I’m sure it will have negative repercussions on China’s ambitious plans of hosting the Olympics in the best possible way.

On another front, there have been 1, 195, 524 causalities in the 5 years of Iraq war, out of which 4000 were American soldiers and 308 were soldiers from the coalition troops. Rest were Iraqis, both civilian and militant. What a waste of human lives and for what?

Below is an an email written by one of those 4000 American soldiers. Its extracted from the NYT article which appeared today. Its heartbreaking!

Hey beautiful well we were on blackout again, we lost yet some more soldiers. I cant wait to get out of this place and return to you where i belong. I dont know how much more of this place i can take. i try to be hard and brave for my guys but i dont know how long i can keep that up you know. its like everytime we go out, any little bump or sounds freaks me out. maybe im jus stressin is all. hopefully ill get over it....

you know, you never think that anything is or can happen to you, at first you feel invincible, but then little by little things start to wear on you...

well im sure well be able to save a couple of bucks if you stay with your mom....and at the same time you can help her with some of the bills for the time being. it doesnt bother me. as long as you guys are content is all that matters. I love and miss you guys like crazy. I know i miss both of you too. at times id like to even just spend 1 minute out of this nightmare just to hold and kiss you guys to make it seem a little bit easier. im sure he will like whatever you get him for xmas, and i know that as he gets older he’ll understand how things work. well things here always seem to be......uhm whats the word.....interesting i guess you can say. you never know whats gonna happen and thats the worst part. do me a favor though, when you go to my sisters or moms or wherever you see my family let them know that i love them very much..ok? well i better get going, i have a lot of stuff to do. but hopefully ill get to hear from you pretty soon.*muah* and hugs. tell mijo im proud of him too!
love always,
your other half

Juan Campos, e-mail message to his wife

Black & White Gems

2008-03-11T12:06:00.012+05:30

Certain major movements in the flow of life has kept me terribly engaged resulting in the neglect of this space. Not that I have stopped my aesthetic pursuits. I continue to swim in the pleasure mixed waters of music, movies and life but haven’t been able to gather that hour of peace in which a man sits down, armed with words to give some shape to his thoughts.

Finally, sipping on the Dreamy Dew, inside the yellow-lit comforts of my home, I’m trying to make a comeback. Its about some Black & White Classics, I managed to watch in the last month and a half. Some, thanks to the film society that I am a part of and some, because the DVD’s that I borrowed from a friend.

The Third Man (1949): A British film noir by Carol Reed, based on the excellent screenplay by Graham Greene. Greene later published a novella of the same name. Brilliant cinematography (for those times), mysteriously beautiful Alida Valli , strange but befitting score on zither by Anton Karas and a superb performance by Orson Welles appearing in the last 40 minutes of the movie are the high points of this classic. In fact, the entry of Welles in the movie is one of the finest I’ve seen.

The Battle of Algiers (1966): This classic Italian docu-drama by the master director, Gillo Pontecorvo is based on the events during the 1954-1962 Algerian War against the French rule. The gripping and disturbing real-life feel with a haunting score by Ennio Morricone and Pontecorvo himself kept me riveted to the TV screen. Anurag Kashyap has taken a few lessons from here for his Black Friday. So have Mira Nair, Steven Soderbergh and Oliver Stone.

The movie has a strong relevance today with Iraq facing a similar situation.

Roman Holiday (1953): Everything is beautiful about this all time great Romantic Comedy by William Wyler. No matter how many times you watch it. Lovely Audrey Hepburn and handsome Gregory Peck riding a Vespa on the streets of Rome. Charmed! (as Princess Ann would have put it)

The Grapes of Wrath (1940): Directed by John Ford, this adaptation of John Steinbeck’s classic of the same name almost does justice to the epic tale of Joad family’s exodus to California from Oklahoma in search of greener pastures during The Great Depression. Great performances by Jane Darwell as Ma Joad and Henry Fonda as Tom Joad mark this American classic.

It’s known that the great Orson Welles used to say that true test of acting skill is in the Black & White medium as colours distract the audience to things other than the actor’s expressions. Using the same logic, one may argue that the converse can also be true. Because colour cinema is a distractive medium, it takes superior acting talent from an actor to keep the audience riveted to his/her performance. Another way of looking at the subject would be to say that it all depends on the actor and his role, irrespective of medium’s shade. Do let me know how you look at it.

ps: That is one of the many excellent shots from 'The Third Man'. The movie got the Academy Award for Cinematography in 1950.

What's Going On

2008-02-20T19:39:00.007+05:30

David Fincher’s latest movie, Zodiac is a thoroughly engaging thriller about a serial killer in the city of San Francisco during the 60’s, and 70’s. Adding the right flavour to the mood of the times, the movie is full of some great music from the shifting decades. The likes of Santana, Donovan, Miles Davis, Gerry Rafferty, Steely Dan etc are beautifully placed throughout the movie.

The usage of Marvin Gaye’s ‘Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler) from the absolutely incredible 1971 album, ‘What’s Going On’ made me want to mention a few things about the song and the album. Why? Because it’s been inside my CD player for a couple of months now and many of my mornings begin with it and the last track (Inner City...) of the album sees me walk outside the door.

Ranked number 6th on the all time greatest albums by the Rolling Stone this creation is as relevant today as it was in 1971. With introspective lyrics on poverty, drug abuse, Vietnam war, ecological problems etc this one set a new trend in the genre of ‘Soul’. Nine tracks, one leading up to another in a song cycle manner as it ends on a reprise to the album’s opening theme. One of the best opening themes, ever!

A simple, subdued tone is held throughout, pillowed by a densely-textured instrumental and vocal backing. At first this sameness in sound persisting from one song to the next is boring, but gradually the concept of the album takes shape and its wholeness becomes very affecting.

The style is set in the first cut, "What's Going On," with its sweet horn opening theme; Gaye's soft, simmering voice reflecting in on itself beautifully from two or three tracks; the contrast of congas and strings; breaks an exciting jumble of street-corner jive and scatting.

Now about the last track...Inner City Blues. For me, it’s the finest cut. Beginning with the Bongo beats and Gayes soft Dah Dah Dah, the song sets in the mellow funk mood which always gets me moving! Lyrically, it talks about the difficult life in the ghettos of inner-city America (and that’s why it will ‘make you wanna holler’). The contrast of difficult times with the funky beat makes this one memorable, forever, reminding me of the usage of ‘Layla’ solo in Goodfellas. Taking the album full circle, the track beautifully blends into the opening theme of the first track, ‘Whats Going On’.

Pick up this one and then give it some time inside your music system to know why it’s such a landmark album. Trust me, you will get addicted to it. Below is an excerpt from the RS write up.

Producing the album amid a haze of marijuana smoke, Gaye made one intuitively brilliant decision after another -- from letting the tapes roll as his friends mingled and chatted to recording the rehearsal exercises of saxophonist Eli Fountain. When Fountain complained that he had just been goofing around, Gaye replied, "Well, you goof exquisitely. Thank you." And that's how the plaintive saxophone line that announces What's Going On came to be.

No Comments!

2008-02-08T12:03:00.000+05:30

Because of some spooky behaviour of bloggerdotcom, readers are not able to put up comments on my last 2 posts. You can check the comments here to know what I mean.

This post is to apologize for the inconvenience caused.

Mixed emotions

2008-02-06T20:37:00.000+05:30

Sunday evening was lucky for many reasons.

Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra was performing in Bombay after 50 years. My music loving father was in town. Mr Bojangles could manage entry passes for me and my father. And we had the experience of a lifetime.

A chamber orchestra is a smaller than the usual orchestra and largely consists of string instruments. Violin and its elder siblings.

The usually mild winters of Bombay has strangely become harsh with icy breeze these days and this Sunday evening was particularly cold with the venue being right next to the sea. But everything became comfortable once we were inside the warm interiors of the magnificent Jamshed Bhabha theatre. The promise of some great live music by the musicians from Germany was adding to the comfort. The 2 years old Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI), was also going to give a couple of performances.

Founded in 1945, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra is the oldest professional chamber orchestra in the world and hence serves as a model for others.

The conductor was a smiling, snow-bearded violinist called Benjamin Hudson and his team lovingly rendered the subtle magic of Mozart, Bach and Greig. The bows of their violins, cellos and bass danced along while their fingers danced on the string. The performing ladies looked beautiful in their gowns and the men sophisticated in their tailcoats. I kept swaying along, reacting to each and every nuance of the compositions. All along, my lips had a constant smile. Evenings like this are rare.

The SOI gave their Stuttgart partners great company but as earnestly accepted by their conductor himself; they have a lot of catching up to do.

During the 15 minutes break, we spotted Pyaarelal of Laxmikant Pyaarelal fame. Dressed in the trademark white attire, he had also come to savour the sonorous evening.

But all wasn’t as beautiful as the music of Mozart. The average age of the audience was 65. Western Classical music is turning into a dying form of art. And this is the truth all over the world. There are very few listeners of this form of music and most of them are in the later part of their lives. Hence, it doesn’t make commercial sense. Simple. Sad. Will there be similar concerts 200 hundred years from now? In Vienna...maybe. But, in Bombay, I’m not sure.

Somehow, our own Indian Classical music scenario seems to be in a better shape than this. I might be wrong.

With these mixed emotions of exhilaration and sadness, my father and I rushed back to my sisters place for dinner with some good wine. The breeze had become icier.

ps: Can you spot the snow-bearded conductor in the picture, taken on the sly? His beard looks black here because of the violin's chin rest.

A Happy Fact

2008-02-05T17:11:00.000+05:30

‘Subtle, smooth and with a pleasant maltiness combined with charred wood undertones and the natural flavour of golden barley.’

That's the description of the excellent Irish whiskey, Tullamore Dew.

Guess what its ad slogan is. ‘Give every man his Dew’. Awesome!

The fact that it’s sitting sweetly inside my cupboard is just incidental.

Two Sentiments

2008-01-30T19:37:00.001+05:30

There is a certain optimism amongst average Sri Lankans about the current Government’s success in completely suppressing the LTTE insurgency. The tough stance taken by the President and the promise to solve the issue within a window of 3 months time is being appreciated by them. And a division of their country is absolutely unacceptable to them.

This was my take-out from a few conversations with people like Sunil, who runs a small resort on Mirissa; Reshad , a Tuk Tuk driver and Ajit, a DVD shop-owner. They all shared the above sentiment.

This is completely in contrast with the views of the Pub-going, English speaking, Corporate kinds of Colombo. They are critical and cynical about the Government’s stance and they are alright with LTTE being given a chance to run the North and East areas of the island for a time period.

I shall wait and keenly watch the way the situation goes. The island and its people are too good be continuously under the dark cloud of troubled times and for so long. Its highly unfortunate!

PS: That's Colombo City in the early morning hours.

When I'm 64

2008-01-27T23:15:00.000+05:30

The green water of the Indian Ocean looks musical from the wooden balcony of this resort.

Young Reshad appeared at 10:30 with his grey BMW and a blank CD. The idea was to write some good music from my collection, so that we can play the ‘right kind of stuff’ in the car during the 3 hours drive. We were off to Mirissa, a little known beach in south and my new friend, Reshad was the guide.

There were a few jobs to be done. First things first, I got the music happening on the excellent sound system of the car. Then we stopped at a local Cargill to pick up a few essentials like half a pack of Lion pints, the local beer; toothpaste and toothbrush and some bottles of water. We were set.

Galle Road, which was taking us to the destination, is laced with the sea throughout, and its water keeps changing its colour as you go down south. The transition is from Blue to Blue-Green to finally Green.

At one of the many beaches that we kept hitting on our right hand side, we saw fishermen pulling the rope which brings the afternoon catch. We stopped over to watch. Lion gave me company. Young Reshad was happy with water. The colour was Blue-Green.

A quick lunch of very spicy Prawns at Hikkaduwa, a popular beach got our stomachs right. Lion was still giving me company. Another half an hour drive and we reached Mirissa Beach, our destination. The water had turned Green.

There are two interesting aspects about this shell-less beach. The sweet aspect is that it’s largely frequented by the geriatrics from all over the world...old men, women, couples are the sorts you will say your ‘Hellos’ to, while walking on the wet sand.

Then, there is this ‘adventure’ aspect...the water here is popular with the surfers! So, if you see young people on the beach, you can guess confidently that they are surfers.

A splash in the green water, a solitary walk along the coastline, making use of the camera, finishing off the J&B, conversing with Reshad about his life, climbing up a nearby mountain-island in the wee hours of the morning, continuously listening to Rhiannon, Sara, Gypsy & As Long as you Follow, giving yoga tips to back-ache troubled Reshad, and now, writing this post were a part of my stay at this resort.

The drive back was largely uneventful, except a very spicy Sri Lankan lunch and Reshad getting caught for over-speeding and then bribing his way to Colombo in his big vehicle.

ps: Thats what I meant by the description, 'GREEN' water...or, is it BLUE-GREEN...or, is it simply BLUE?

My colorful beach bag

2008-01-26T10:22:00.001+05:30

As always, a lot has been happening ever since I’ve landed here in the Isle. I’ve been trying to explore certain professional challenges and seeking the usual personal pleasure and will be documenting it all, shortly. About Laphroig and Sweet Caroline, about Sea Spray and a fortress of an office, about a fishing town at the break of dawn and Sage Merlyn...all of it will be appearing here in good time. For now, I’m off to a beach resort located in the south of the island with a bottle of J&B, and Steinbeck tucked in my colourful beach bag.

About my friends here...well, they are the same sweet self. It was delightful meeting them again. Chaga has already given me some good coffee beans which I shall be sipping on when I’m back to India.

Magic Movie Moments

2008-01-18T15:28:00.000+05:30

The unfortunate situation in Kenya continues unabated. Every morning I watch it from the screen of my TV and get disturbed. 600 people have died so far and another 250,000 rendered homeless. Being a romantic, I keep hoping that conditions will improve with proper mediation and talks between Kibaki and Odinga.

Closer home, the situation has once again become troubled in my favourite Island country. The ceasefire has been called off, officially and the terrorist attacks by the LTTE have increased in a big manner. Once again, it leaves me very disturbed. A country which is so beautiful, with its people, geography and culture is amidst a constant threat. I will be in Colombo for 10 days starting this Sunday and will try to fill you in with the sentiments.

Another neighbouring nation continues to be in its state of chaos. Let’s see what the so called democratic elections will bring to Pakistan.

On the aesthetic note, I’ve been keeping myself busy with a list of movies. Movies from past and present, from this part of the world and other parts of the world, on big screen and small screen. Movies which made me appreciate, criticize, love and live through their various moments. So, here is a documentation of such magic moments of loving, living, appreciation and goosebumps.

The dance sequence at the restaurant between Franz, Odile and Arthur (Bande Apart , Godard, 1954)
Alexander getting caned by his step-father while Fanny watches quietly...too afraid to express any emotion ( Fanny & Alexander, Bergman, 1982)
Hitler’s angry outburst at his aides while his hands tremor behind his back and while Berlin burns (The Downfall, Oliver Hirschbiegel, 2004)
Wiesler ‘s faint smile while listening to ‘The Sonata for a Good Man’ (Lives of Others, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, 2006)

Sanjouro’s cynical and ‘afraid of nothing’ look, always...( In both Sanjuro and Yojimbo , Kurosawa, 1963)

Gondo’s change of stance when he hears that it’s his driver’s son who has been kidnapped and not his son (High and Low, Kurosawa, 1964)

Avijit displaying his genius eye for colors and pictures (Born into Brothels, Zana Briski / Rauf Kauffman, 2004)

Ego going back to his childhood after eating the Ratatouille made by Remy and then writing an honest review (Ratatouille, Brad Bird/Jan Pinkava, 2007)

Prewitt and Warden having a drunken conversation late in the night, sitting in the middle of the road (From Here to Eternity, Fred Zinnemann, 1953)

The various skirmishes between The Great Danton and The Professor (The Prestige, Chritopher Nolan, 2006)

These moments are from the cinema of the other world. Coming up next is the list from our world. Have a good weekend!

The picture above is the cover design of a great book on movies which I am a proud owner of...thanks to good ol' friend, whom I haven't met in a long long time.

ps: They are celebrating my birthday today, exactly the way it happened last year. To know more about what happened last year and today, read here.

You talkin' to me?

2008-01-09T17:33:00.001+05:30

Travis Bickle is one of the most important characters from modern cinema. He represents the alienated urban angst (of course, in a very inflated manner) which a modern city life brings with it.

‘You talkin’ to me?’ remains one of the most famous movie lines ever. In fact, after seeing De Niro (playing Travis) practising the legendary line in front of the mirror, I went up to my mirror to do the same, sans the pistol and the contraption on my body. Later, I started dropping in that line in every interaction with my friends. It was the coolest line ever written. I was at an impressionable age. But, 30 years on, it remains one of the coolest line. Certain magazine rates it amongst Top 10 movie lines ever.

The creators of this movie history were Paul Schrader, the writer; Martin Scorsese, the director and Robert DeNiro, the great actor along with many others. They named it Taxi Driver and it was released in 1976, the year when my mother would’ve started driving me in a perambulator. I was born in the same year.

Apart from uttering these cool self-indulgent lines, Travis, a cabbie in New York maintains a Diary in which he documents his life and street life of NYC. He doesn’t like what he sees and feels and puts it across in frustrated words and apart from many other excellent aspects, this remains the best part of the movie, for me. Actually, his anger sums up the purpose of the movie and also explains the minor mental instability of the character. Paul Schrader has done wonders with the screenplay. An excerpt from Travis’s Diary:

"Thank God for the rain...which has helped wash away the garbage and trash off the sidewalks. I'm working long hours now: in the afternoon too : sometimes : in the morning. Six days a week, sometimes seven days a week. It's a long hustle, but it keeps me real busy. I can take in a week, sometimes more when I do if off the meter.

All the animals come out at night.Whores, skunks, pussies, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, junkies. Sick, venal. Someday a real rain will come and wash this scum off the streets. I go all over. I take people to the Bronx, Brooklyn, to Harlem. I don't care. Don't make no difference to me."

Or , this:

"Twelve hours of work, and I still can't sleep. Damn! The days go on and on. They don't end. All my life needed was a sense of someplace to go. I don't believe that one should devote his life to morbid self-attention. I believe that someone should become a person like other people."

For the full screenplay, you can go over here.

Why am I writing on Taxi Driver is because the other day, a friend sent me a link to another movie. It’s a German porn flick trying to pass as an educational material or the other way around. I really don’t know as I haven’t seen it. It’s called Karlekens Sprak and it figures in Bickle's life.

So, Travis likes this girl called Betsy (played by Cybill Shepherd) and wants to take her to a movie and she agrees. So he takes her to this porno and she gets disgusted within 15 minutes to leave the theater and him. Travis is genuinely unable to understand her. The sequence is quiet funny and goes on another step to establish the mental set-up of the character. Apart from the gore and morbidity which it is famous for, the flick has some funny moments too.

Thanks for the link, Atish!

Paperback Revolution

2008-01-03T16:03:00.000+05:30

While the year began on a very shameful note here in Mumbai, there in Kochi, Pune, Patna and other unreported places, I began it by reading a little story on the history of ‘Penguin Books’ and ‘paperbacks’. It’s charming, concerns books and deserves to be narrated here.

Penguin Books has this series called Pocket Penguins, 70 and on a recent visit to Landmark, the gigantic bookstore in a mega-gigantic mall, I picked up some good ones from the series. Scott Fitzgerald, Nabokov, Woolf, Steinbeck and Hunter Thompson. Wanting to read, the beautiful story called ‘The Breakfast’ by Steinbeck, I opened up the book to find this story on the first page.

In 1935 if you wanted to read a good book, you needed either a lot of money or a library card. Cheap paperbacks were available, but their poor production generally mirrored the quality between the covers. One weekend that year, Allen Lane, Managing Director of The Bodley Head, having spent the weekend visiting Agatha Christie, found himself on a platform at Exeter station trying to find something to read for his journey back to London. He was appalled by the quality of the material he had to choose from. Everything that Allen Lane achieved from that day until his death in 1970 was based on a passionate belief in the existence of ‘a vast reading public for intelligent books at a low price’.

The result of his momentous vision was the birth not only of Penguin, but of the ‘paperback revolution’. Quality writing became available for the price of a packet of cigarettes, literature became a mass medium for the first time, a nation of book borrowers became a nation of book-buyers – and the very concept of book publishing was changed forever. Those founding principles – of quality and value, with an overarching belief in the fundamental importance of reading – have guided everything the company has done since 1935. Sir Allen Lane’s pioneering spirit is still very much alive at Penguin in 2005. Here’s to the next 70 years!

As is evident from this tale, the great publishing house came out with this series to commemorate 70 years of publication, in 2005. The first 20 books published by Penguin included titles like ‘A Farewell to Arms’ by Hemingway and ‘The Informer’ by Liam O’Flaherty.

Thank you Mr. Lane!

Happy New Year

2007-12-31T14:05:00.000+05:30

Here's wishing you all good, successful and most importantly, peaceful times in the coming year!

A few lines from Dylan's 'New Morning' from the album of the same name released in 1970.

Can't you hear that rooster crowin'?
Rabbit runnin' down across the road
Underneath the bridge where the water flowed through
So happy just to see you smile
Underneath the sky of blue
On this new morning, new morning
On this new morning with you.

Cheers!

A Discovery on a Cold Evening

2007-12-27T17:15:00.000+05:30

Shankar Jaikishen was a duo of prolific and very talented music composers who composed for over 150 Hindi movies. At one point of time, they were the highest paid music directors in the circuit and a regular feature of all Raj Kapoor banner productions.

The small town evening was cold and dull with nothing much to do. Thinking that some good Shankar-Jaikishen melodies might just brighten things up, I pushed the music DVD of Raj Kapoor songs inside the player. Half an hour later, things did brighten up with an interesting discovery and the idea for this post started taking shape in my mind.

Raga Bhairavi belongs to the Bhairavi Thaat. It is a late morning Raga, and traditionally is the last raga performed at an Indian Classical session. Shuddh Bhairavi uses all the 6 full notes in the ascending and descending order with D & E and A & B being flat. Many Hindi film composers have used this evergreen Raga to make many beautiful songs.

Out of the 11 songs that played in that half an hour, 8 were based on Raga Bhairavi.

The 8 Bhairavi laced beautiful songs were:

Awaara Hoon (Mukesh, Awaara, 1951)
Mera Joota Hai Japaani (Mukesh, Shri 420, 1955)
Sab Kucch Seekha Hamne (Mukesh, Anari, 1959)
Ramaiyya Vasta Vaiya (Manna Dey, Shri 420, 1955)
Barsaat Mein Humse Mile Tum (Lata, Barsaat, 1955)
Hawa Mein Udta Jaaye (do)
Hoton Pe Sacchai Rehti Hai (Mukesh, Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai, 1960)
Raja Ki Aayegi Baraat (Lata, Aah, 1953)

The duo had a great penchant for the Raga and used it beautifully and differently in all the above songs. Later my father, an expert on the subject of Old Hindi Film music and Indian Classical music informed me that all the songs of the movie Barsaat(1955) are set on variations of Raga Bharavi. Astounding!

Why were the masters so much in love with one particular Raga? We will never be able to get their answer to this question. According to me, perhaps it’s the robustness of the Raga because of the usage of all seven notes. The last song in the DVD was ‘Jeena Yahaan, Marna Yahaan’ sung by Mukesh from the movie Mera Naam Joker (1970). Once again set to Raga Bhairavi!

In a similar manner, the great composer of yesteryears, Roshan (grandfather of Hrithik Roshan) had his muse in Yaman, another beautiful Raga.

Today, barring AR Rehman, no other musician has the sense or inclination to use Raga Bhairavi, in its pure form and beautifully. Try listening to the intense ‘Enge Enathu Kavithai’ sung by Chitra from the movie Kandukondein Kandukondein or the little known ‘Sabak Aisa’ sung by Saadhna Sargam from the movie, Tehzeeb or the popular ‘Jiya Jale na Jale’ sung by Lata from the movie, ‘Dil Se’.

ps: Im' not a fan of Raj Kapoor. Just felt like making that clear.

The 'not so mild' winter - 2

2007-12-24T16:27:00.000+05:30

I’m’ back to the big city from a trip to my hometown with a visit to an ancient university thrown in. I shall try to give you taste of that experience in the coming posts. First, I have to present the 2nd edition of the Delhi Winter.

Narendra enthusiastic driving skills saw us entering the gates of Dilli Haat within twenty minutes of leaving Central Delhi, despite the rush hour. Haat is a word in Hindi for a weekly village market and true to the meaning; the place has the charm and feel of a village fair.

Having heard from many about the place, I was expecting it to be a mere marketplace selling articles and goods from the different parts of rural India. And, the first look suggested the same. Two hours later I walked out of the place with a sense of appreciation and a feeling of pride for our country’s rich and superbly diverse culture. The place isn’t a mere marketplace…it’s a showcase of the skills and craft of many small, unknown and unsung artistes and craftsmen from different corners of the country. It’s a nurturing ground for such talents, a great idea and a massive effort. I couldn’t have brought Farhan to a better place and he was almost euphoric. I shared this feeling with him.

Apart from the artifacts from the many parts of India, it has stalls carrying the distinct food from the different states. We chose the authentic filter coffee from the Tamil Nadu stall. The excellent coffee went very well with the rising chill of the evening.

Once again, Farhan picked up a few things for his family while I managed with much needed key rings, made from coconut wood, an EkTaara (a one string musical instrument) and a Damroo (a percussion instrument, supposed to be the favorite of Lord Shiva). The Ektaara player was an obscure talent, playing many popular Hindi tracks on a ONE-STRINGED instrument. The melodies of Mera Joota Hai Japaani, Reshmi Salwaar Kurta Jaalidaar, Ek Do Teen, just kept flowing from one string. It was a stunning performance!

Just near the exit, a puppet show was in full swing and it held us captive for the next 20 minutes. The kids and the puppeteer were the guys having most fun. The themes of a show varied between ‘a snake-charmer unsuccessfully trying to manage a cobra’ and ‘a gallant horse-rider displaying his skills on the horse’. The last time when I saw a puppet show, I was a kid. While watching this one, I became a kid again. Mesmerized and Charmed!

The evening ended with a delicious meal at Punjabi by Nature, a restaurant recommended by an old friend and a Delhi old timer who later joined us at the joint. The Reshami Kebab was of the size of a loaf of bread and we had to use a knife to cut slices of it. It was one of the finest Kebaabs, I’ve ever tasted and we thanked the ‘Delhi friend’ for his excellent recommendation.

The long day and a great meal had made the two of us amply sedate. We said our goodbyes to the ‘Delhi friend’ and headed towards the guesthouse with Narendra. A calm and satisfied look on Farhan’s face with sleep getting ready to take over suggested that he had a good time. I smiled inside my mind and looked outside the window of the moving car.

The picture above is from the puppet show. Can you catch a fleeting glimpse of the cobra and the snake-charmer?

Wish you all a very Happy Christmas!

An announced break

2007-12-12T14:11:00.000+05:30

I'm taking a 2 week break from this space on the account of a visit to my home-town. My apologies for doing so between a series, but I shall try to post the second edition of Delhi Winter during this period.

From the cold evening of New Delhi railway station, I will be boarding a night-train to reach the land of Buddha's Nirvana in the morning.

The 'not so mild' winter - 1

2007-12-06T15:28:00.000+05:30

This post should have appeared a week ago but certain situations and perhaps my ennui towards writing kept it away, somewhere in the pages of my mind. With a big meeting getting postponed one more time, I thought of pulling it out and putting it here.

My friend Farhan Shaffie from the ‘Emerald Isle’ was in India for professional reasons and we caught up with each other in the early winters of the Capital. Those who know Delhi would know that early winters here is not as mild as the one I mentioned in my last post.

Between the many business meetings we managed to steal some time, an office vehicle and Narendra, the enthusiastic driver for Farhan’s ‘Dilli Darshan’(which included Tourist shopping). Actually, the prospect of this venture was quite attractive to me too as ‘Dilli’ had become very faint in my memory. Some 10 years ago, I lived in this city for a while.

Narendra had everything fixed in his mind regarding the structure of this trip and interestingly, his structure tallied with the one in my mind. We set out after putting in some good north Indian food inside our system.

Our first stop was at the ‘seat of power’ and ‘shot of history’ with the Rashtrapati Bhavan, India Gate et al. The whole area with its grand and beautiful architectural achievements of Lutyen has the powers to fill everyone with awe and that’s exactly what it did to us. Farhan’s camera was working overtime.

After a few circles around the big circular shopping arcade called the Connaught Place (popularly known as CeePee) we moved on to the famous tourist – shopping lane in the vicinity. It’s called ‘Janpath’ and is famous for fleecing the tourists. Thankfully, Farhan’s focused shopping agenda and my presence (with ‘Hindi’) saved him from getting fleeced. One walk down the lane and he was done with his shopping with an item each for all the important people back home. I picked up a pack of Darjeeling Tea for a Ceylon tea loving Chaga, another friend from the Isle. Farhan readily agreed to be the carrier.

Apples picked up from a roadside fruit-seller satiated our small evening hunger. An early darkness, typical of north Indian winters was descending on the city. Narendra was driving us to our next destination, Dilli Haat. More on that in the next post.

The picture above is of an X-Mas Greeting postcard sent to London from WAC Hostel, New Delhi in 1944.

The mild winter

2007-11-23T16:23:00.000+05:30

Mornings are getting more and more sleep-conducive.

The onset of sun has become mild and day begins with a hazy and diffused light. Even my east-facing bedroom permits me to stay in the bed a little longer.

And when the golden blob becomes a little strong during the course of the day, it feels good in the bones to be underneath it.

Finally, when the evening comes with the leaves on the trees swaying in a calm joy, and the birds chirping ‘Homeward Bound’, you feel like going for a long walk.

The mild winter of Bombay is here.

ps: I miss the extreme winter of my hometown.

Morning Music

2007-11-13T13:25:00.000+05:30

Like many others, I begin my day with a heavy shot of music. It plays in the background and forefront of my waking hours while I go about doing my routine activities. Yoga, Hindustan Times, Orange Pekoe, staring from my window at the newly built crows nest on the tree outside etc., while what I call as ‘Morning Music’ keeps playing in my world.

'Morning Music' because all music can’t be played at the beginning of the day, as there is a certain mood associated with mornings. Something which our very own Indian Classical gurus from the past understood clearly and composed Ragas suitable for different times of the day. I can’t imagine beginning my day with the Tom Waits album ‘Closing Time’ while I completely relish the ‘The White Album’ with its aircraft landing sound (Back in the USSR, the opening track) every time it becomes a part of my mornings.

Let me take you through the chain of melodies that I queued up for this morning.

It began with the delicate piano note of Satie’s 'First Gymnopédie'. Its gentle melody feels as if a mother is lovingly caressing a child’s head to wake her up from a good night’s slumber.

Then it moved into the brilliant three violin and a bass piece called ‘Canon in D Major’ by Pachelbel. I've already mentioned it in my earleir post and along with Gymnopédie, it has become a permanent fixture of my current being. Its slow beginning and full bodied yet gentle finale makes one ready for the day.

A change of genre happened here with Mr Neil Young coming in with songs from his brillaint early albums, ‘Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere’ (2nd album, 1969) and 'Harvest' (4th album, 1971). The master’s guitaring in ‘Down by the River’ and the honesty of poetry in ‘Heart of Gold’ is exceptional.

The old country crooner, Hank Williams came next with his melodious and simple ‘Lovesick Blues’ and ‘Cold Cold Heart’. The latter has been sung by so many other artistes including Dylan and Norah Jones but nothing beats the rawness of Hank Williams's voice.

The morning’s chain of melody ended with ‘I Feel Free’ from Fresh Cream, the fabulous debut album by Cream (1966).

I switched on BBC World to know whats happening in the chaotic state of Pakistan and the rest of the world. The channel also informed me that the first exibition of Bob Dylan’s many paintings has opened up at a museum in Chemnitz, Eastern Germany.

ps: I spent the Diwali weekend in the peaceful surroundings of Kerela. I had gone there for important personal reasons. The visit was nice and peaceful with a lot of good Malayali food (specially Fish Molly & Prawns Chilly), car rides and a boat ride thrown in. I enjoyed myself completely.

A well spent Day

2007-11-01T14:36:00.001+05:30

While Phish wants me to write on ‘good writing’ and circumstances want me to write to my mother, I chose to write about today because I'm unable to sleep without doing so.

After seeing off my friend on a train headed towards Trivandrum from CST (popularly known as VeeTee), I thought of treating myself to my old neighborhood…the area known as ‘town’. This area was my first exposure to Bombay because of my stay at the YMCA, Colaba during the beautiful first two years in the island city.

So, I began with a walk inside the porticos of the old gothic buildings, which has a million DVD (pirated) and old books stalls. Between the many calls to buy porn DVDs from the Dhoni/John Abraham look-alikes, I ended up buying two books from these pavement people. 'Tales from Underground' (as my original copy was missing from my library) by Fyodor Dostoyevesky and a collection of funny writings by Woody Allen, called 'Without Feathers'.

Happy with the purchase and humming ‘The Wedding March (for some reason)’ by Mendelssohn, my next stop was at the institutional Tea Center next to the Curchgate Station. I sat there sipping on the excellent Darjeeling Flowery Orange Pekoe, First Flush along with some French toast, and funnies from Mr Allen’s book. ‘I wonder what happens after death. Will we be able to take showers after we die?’ he writes. The man is genuinely funny.

After relaxing for an hour at the place, I came out with a fresh mind and a pack of Apoorva Makaibari tea. My next destination was the great 'Gokul Restaurant & Bar' in Colaba to meet my brother in law, Shoaib. By now, the evening had started asking the night to replace her.

The cabdriver who gave me the ride from Churchgate to Regal was happily singing an Alaap in what felt like Raaga Bhimpalaasi (the excellent Bhajan, Allah Tero Naam, from the old movie, Hum Dono is based on this raga) to me. He was singing it very well. A quick conversation revealed that Dinkar, the cabbie has learnt Indian Classical, vocal for 5 years and loves practicing it while he is taking people here and there. When I asked him if he uses it for commercial purposes, he replied, ‘I just like doing it for my happiness and nothing else.’ I felt wonderful about meeting such a man.

The great and once again institutional Gokul was absolutely the same…guess it will always remain the same. It lives in a time warp. Smokey, No Nonsense, Quarter system, Mostly men bar (many say its a gay joint too). The gang of friends who are always there on their regular table had come. The first time I had seen them was some 8 years ago and ever since, they come there everyday. Once, even I used to go there everyday.

Shoaib and I had a good time with conversation on important and unimportant subjects. The conversations were laced with Teachers, Port and good old Gokul food. Later, we caught the cabs to our respective destinations.

Back at home, before sleeping I took a shower while Pete Dorge sang ‘Small Time Blues’ from the CD player. Contrary to the popular theory, it didn’t help me drift into a sweet slumber and here I am writing this piece.

That’s how Victoria Terminus (Vee Tee) used to look in 1908.

ps: I've started on the write-up, Phish.

Kill to Get Crimson

2007-10-25T17:12:00.000+05:30

A week after I heard about the man’s new album, it was playing in my CD player and it has been there ever since, replacing the mesmerizing Canon in D major by Pachelbel. I’m referring to Mark Knopfler’s 5th solo album which is called ‘Kill to Get Crimson’. Just when I thought I’m ready and willing to write about it, I found this beautiful review from Rolling Stone and I had second thoughts. The magazine's review deserved a space here and so, I’m presenting it to you. It’s written by Anthony DeCurtis.

Along with occassional soundtracks and All the Roadrunning, his winning 2006 collaboration with Emmylou Harris, Kill to Get Crimson is Mark Knopfler's fifth solo album, and it's a gem. Since the 1995 breakup of Dire Straits, Knopfler has dedicated himself to making music that blends the deep resonance of traditional folk with the off-kilter edginess he brought to his former group's most trenchant songs. Knopfler is best at deftly drawn character studies -- the failed actor in "The Fizzy and the Still," the aging painter in "Let It All Go" whose passion for color gives the album its title. A recovering guitar god, Knopfler plays superbly -- check out his haunting solo on "The Scaffolder's Wife" -- but always with instinctive restraint. He's an ensemble player, nestling in among the likes of accordionist Ian Lowthian and fiddler John McCusker to summon sonic images that subtly reinforce the moods of his songs. Kill to Get Crimson, then, is at once egoless and supremely accomplished a testament to the rare talent that enables a master to say something simply and beautifully, and leave it exactly at that.

I just couldn’t help adding my bit.

The album begins with a very happy and sing-along, ‘True Love will Never Fade’ and ends with the melodious and melancholic ‘In the Sky’. I wonder why Mr DeCurtis missed out on appreciating Chris White’s haunting saxophone shadowing Mr Knopfler’s, almost wailing voice in this final track.

Thats how the album cover looks like. Its a 1958 painting by John Bratby called 'Four Lambrettas and Three Portraits of Janet Churchman'.

ps: I came up with this post despite being tagged to write something else...my apologies, Phish! It will happen one of these days.

Back to Fiction

2007-10-19T13:43:00.000+05:30

As mentioned in the last page of the ‘The Emerald Diaries’, I’m back to reading fiction and it’s a great feeling. Despite the busy schedules of materialistic pursuits of life, I have managed to read works by three different writers in the last month and a half. All the three works gave me varying degrees of pleasure and I felt like sharing them with you.

‘No Exit and other Plays’ – Jean Paul Sartre
Having read and getting influenced by almost all the works by this master, this was the first time I was in presence of the man as a playwright. One page down the first play and once again I was marveling at the brilliance of this great thinker’s mind.

All philosophers try to address the basics of life and that’s what the 4 plays in this collection try to do. The first one, ‘No Exit’ is writer’s interpretation of hell and deals with issues like guilt, morality and suffering. Though I’d love to talk about it at length but that will work as a spoiler and so,I shall refrain from the temptation.

The other plays are about subjects like existence and need for God, differing political philosophies (with a focus on Communism) and racism. All of them expressed with the genius of Mr. Sartre’s style.

‘Reef’ – Romesh Gunasekara
I came upon this author of Sri Lankan origin, for academic purposes. His collection of short stories called ‘Monkfish Moon’ had impressed me with their simplicity of plots, eye for the detail and the easy narrative style and so I picked up this one during my recent trip to the island country.

Frankly, I had expected more from 'Reef' than what I got out of it. At a macro level it’s a tale of a country mired in political turmoil. It’s narrated from the viewpoint of an adolescent cook serving at a house with some amount of old money and one middle aged bachelor.

Once again, the simple and detailed narrative style is interesting but gets staid after a while. It was good when the writer was dealing with the short story format. One expects more substance out of a novel. But, I enjoyed the familiar sprinkling of the geographical context in the novel…a context, which has become much lovable after my recent trip to the place.

Please don’t go by my views, as the book got short listed the famous Booker awards. Pick it up and decide for yourself.

‘Disgrace’ – John Maxwell Coetzee
This one got a Booker and was one of the reasons why this South African author got the coveted Nobel Prize for Literature. Having read a collection of his essays, ‘Stranger Shores’, I knew that I was going to get immersed in some good writing and content. And this work of fiction did not disappoint me at all. Right from the first sentence onwards, the unique description in present tense gripped me completely. In spite of being a slow reader I finished the book in 3 days time. Allow me to give you it's backdrop briefly.

A Cape Town literature professor, Coetzee's central character believes that ''for a man of his age, 52, divorced, he has, to his mind, solved the problem of sex rather well.'' That's the novel's first sentence, and it tells us that David Lurie hasn't solved the problem at all. This is simply the status quo whose rupture produces a story. The commas are placed beautifully in the way that they parse out his situation, bracketing off ''to his mind'' in order to suggest the limits of his solution, his regular Thursday afternoons with Soraya of Discreet Escorts.

You should surely pick up this one to know why Mr Coetzee got a well-deserved Nobel.

But, can somebody explain why Al Gore of ‘The Inconvenient Truth’ got a Nobel for Peace…beats me!

A Good Journey

2007-10-10T15:46:00.000+05:30

After writing my tribute to Lennon on his birthday, I realized that another entity must've completed one year of its existence. A quick check revealed that its well past the birthday. This blog, which gets its name from a Dylan track breathed life on September 22nd, 2006 with this post.

Its been a good journey so far, and the writer appreciates the attention that the blog keeps getting now and then. Many thanks!

Seashell Eyes, Windy Smile

2007-10-09T15:24:00.000+05:30

It’s John Winston Ono Lennon’s birthday today. Had he been alive he would have been 67 years old and perhaps writing many more beautiful songs. One man’s lunacy resulted in a highly premature end to the music and poetry of one of the greatest artistes of all time.

In my opinion, Lennon recorded some of his best music during his solo career starting with the phenomenal album, 'John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band' (1970). But for the occasion, I’m going to talk about a song which he wrote and sang on the landmark double disc album by The Beatles, referred to as The White Album (1968). The song is called 'Julia'.

No other Beatle sings or plays on the recording and this is the only time that Lennon played and sang unaccompanied on a Beatles track. It was written for his mother Julia (who also died in an accident) and his wife, Yoko Ono (Yoko in Japanese means ‘child of the sea’…you will see the significance of this when you read the lyrics below)). He also drew inspiration from Kahlil Gibran’s poem ‘Sand and Foam’ for this brilliantlly soft track painting a totally surreal imagery. Travis picking (a style of picking of the guitar strings) and his dreamy, lullaby sort of voice goes on to complete the picture.

The usage, ‘Seashell eyes, Windy smile’ is one of the finest I’ve come across in popular music.

Julia
Half of what I say is meaningless

But I say it just to reach you, Julia

Julia, Julia, oceanchild, calls me

So I sing a song of love, Julia

Julia, seashell eyes, windy smile, calls me

So I sing a song of love, Julia

Her hair of floating sky is shimmering, glimmering,

In the sun

Julia, Julia, morning moon, touch me

So I sing a song of love, Julia

When I cannot sing my heart

I can only speak my mind, Julia

Julia, sleeping sand, silent cloud, touch me

So I sing a song of love, Julia

Hum hum hum...calls me

So I sing a song of love for Julia, Julia, Julia

Dave Grohl, ex-Nirvana drummer and singer/guitarist of the Foo Fighters, once said that his life would be complete if he could write a song like "Julia." For me, just listening to the song is enough.

So, at midnight I did a small celebration by playing ‘Julia’, before dozing off to golden slumbers and wanting to dream of sleeping sand and silent clouds.

The Emerald Isle Diaries - 10

2007-10-04T00:10:00.000+05:30

While Burma continues to remain in unfortunate and shameful circumstances, I move on to the last page of the Diaries. It’s been 10 days since I flew out of the small, green island to reach the crazy and somehow lovable city of Bombay but every now and then I keep flying back to the Emerald Isle.

I arrived here with many DVDs, new clothes, tea-tins, a coffee-table book on Sri Lanka, a beautiful ‘Thank-you plaque’ of the shape of the island and a strange numbness of leaving behind a world which had almost become home...a good home. In fact, I had the chance of making this world a proper home but I denied it for reasons known to me and perhaps to the unhappiness of my friends at the Isle. The numbness stayed with me till the familiar quarters of my home and meeting the people I missed cured it.

Numbness aside, I have returned a happier man from the Isle. The visit to the country was perhaps like a visit to a counsellor. I talked about myself to new people without any inhibition because they showed genuine interest in knowing me. When they asked, ‘Did you sleep well last night?’ you knew from their expression and the tone of voice that they are really interested in knowing about my comfort levels. And, I had just met them. Today, they have become good friends and will always remain so.

I also saw myself going back to reading fiction despite not being in that ‘Holiday State of Mind’…I was in Sri Lanka on work. Perhaps it’s got to do with the ‘Peaceful State of Mind’, which the country gave me. I finished reading ‘No Exit and Other Plays’ by one of my favorites, Sartre. I hadn’t read any of his plays before and I enjoyed them completely.

I may have to go back to the Isle in a while but till then, as I mentioned in the first paragraph, I shall keep going there every now and then between the sips of Ceylon Tea sieved through Chaga’s thoughtful gift.

The photograph above is of the good friends I made at The Emerald Isle. From left to right: Farhan, Thiyagi and Chaga.

A pagebreak in protest

2007-09-27T11:47:00.000+05:30

I'm breaking the flow of my Diaries to show my disgust at whats happening in Myanmar. Peaceful demonstration by the Buddhist monks in favour of democracy is being curbed by the ruling military junta in a violent fashion. 3 monks have been killed, 100s put behind bars and now the military is storming the monastries.

Its shameful!

The Emerald Isle Diaries - 9

2007-09-23T19:10:00.000+05:30

It’s my last evening at the Isle and this is the last post from the Isle. But this isn’t the last page from the diary. I have to write a few more pages on it and that will happen from

India

The good friend arrived much later than the expected time due to some technical snag with the aircraft. And, as usual, much has happened since then. Planned, unplanned and foiled plans. Let me tell you about a couple of them.

Friday evening brought in a major experience of the ‘Rock’ side of Sri Lanka. Chaga took us to meet some of her friends who are into ‘real rock’ music and the two of us were delighted way beyond our expectations. She had mentioned about it earlier and I had thought it will be a bunch of guys having some fun together. What we experienced was a bunch of highly professional and accomplished musicians inside a dark and great sounding studio, having some fun together.

The band is called ‘Sage Merlyn’ and it consists of 3 fat and happy brothers. One with his awesome throaty (Louis Armstrongish) vocals, another at the lead guitar with extremely some extremely taut guitaring and the third one at the keyboards. When we waked in, they had just started playing a solid rock rendition of ‘Sandman’ (America), which is originally on the softer side. As the evening unfurled, guys kept joining them on different instruments and it became one long trip for everyone who was present there, including us. The famous Sri Lankan Arrack in the red color case kept going down our throats as the atmosphere kept going high.

They sang their renditions of some great tracks but what bowled me over completely was how they turned a sentimental number like ‘Diamonds and Rust’ (Joan Baez) in a powerful rock number. I’ve never been to a better night-club in my life. A couple of hours later, I had joined them on vocals for a few numbers by Cat Stevans and the personal favorite ‘Dust in the Wind’ (Kansas).

The early morning trip to Sigiriya Fort and Minnariya Tank (a natural reservoir) forced us to leave the music and those three happy and high brothers.

The long awaited trip to Sigiriya / Minnariya Tank began at 7:45 am from the hotel lobby. Sigiriya is an ancient fortress built by an insecure King on the top of a mountain and Minnariya Tank is a natural reservoir famous for its elephants. Both these places are close to each other and the plan was to cover them both with one night’s stay at the guest house near the fortress.

The trip ended in the hotel lobby at 10 am of the same day and the stupidity of the driver assigned to us by the car-hire company was responsible for it. I don’t want to get into the frustrations of those 2 hours over here. I had to cancel the trip to get some peace of mind for the two of us.

Since then, it has largely been a shopping based weekend with a dip in the pool. Magical Laphroig, purchse of some good DVDs and India’s smashing victory over Australia has been the high points.

I haven’t given up on the plans climbing up the fort and going to the reservoir. It shall happen in my next trip to the island, which will be soon.

The photograph above is of the vocalist of Sage Merlyn.

The Emerald Isle Diaries - 8

2007-09-21T00:31:00.000+05:30

My experience with the famous

Ceylon

tea began as a let down and I mentioned it in one of my earlier pages. Taj Samudra has Orange Pekoe in their menu but it’s absent from their kitchen. Chaga, my colleague came to my rescue with a pack of BOP (Broken Orange Pekoe) belonging to the famous Mlesna (pronounced Melesna) Tea Estate and more importantly a small metallic sieve. Now, I brew my own tea inside the comforts of my room and the mornings have become beautiful. Sipping on orange pekoe while staring aimlessly at the sea with ‘Pet Sounds’ as the background score is a great way to begin the day.

Sri Lankans consume a lot of sugar in their cuppa and it can become very frustrating at times, especially when you are used to half a teaspoon of sugar. After the first couple of days, the woman who is responsible for tea / coffee, in my office had to be asked to give sugar separately. Her name is Shakuntala and she is always ready with three questions, whenever she sees me. They are, Tea? Coffee? or Water? She lost everyone she had in the Tsunami of 2004 and she is always full of smile and service.

What we call as ‘black tea’ is referred to as ‘plain tea’ over here and it’s more popular than the one with milk. One can expect the quality of this tea to be usually good (if you can discount the amount of sugar in it) even in the cheapest looking joint.

The hill station of Nuwara Eliya, near Kandy is one of the major tea producing zones. History suggests that the production of tea in Ceylon began after a deadly fungus destroyed most of the coffee crop on the island. The coffee plantation owners realized that they needed to diversify. This was around 1860s.

Though its of fine quality, I’m yet to taste anything close to the Darjeeling variety of Orange Pekoe. But, Shakuntala’s smile and readiness to serve makes up for it.

I will be getting samples of the Ceylon Tea for some of you and then you can give me your opinions. For now, a good friend from India is expected any moment. Charmed by the Diaries, he is flying down to be here for the weekend.

The photograph above is of Chagas gift. The kettle belongs to the Hotel.

The Emerald Isle Diaries - 7

2007-09-17T22:27:00.000+05:30

Arnold is the name of an excellent singer in Colombo. His rendition of ‘Wind beneath my wings’ at the popular Karaoke Bar called ‘Sopranos’ keeps ringing in my ears. But, Arnold is tired…tired and bored of

Sri Lanka

. He says that nothing ever happens in

Sri Lanka

….everybody just goes to the nightclubs on Wednesdays and Weekends like a ritual…that’s all that they do and will keep doing. With my 3 weeks of stay in the Isle, I can see some truth in his statement. That night, while leaving the Karaoke bar, I felt a little sad for Arnold. I still do.

The musical landscape of Sri Lanka has different types. Type one is what they call as ‘Baaila’ and has its origins in Portugul, hence it has similar melodies, rhythm and structure as the Goan music. Happy, dance-worthy and easy! This sort of music is equally popular at the up-market night-clubs as well as a street side shop in the upcountry.

Type two is the film songs from old Sri Lankan movies and interestingly, most of them are set on the tunes of old and popular Hindi film songs. If you are into old hindi film songs, you can hear the familiar melody of a ‘Teri Aankhon Ke Siva Duniya Mein’ or a ‘Koi Saaghar Dil Ko Behlaata Nahin’ to the unfamiliar Sinhalese lyrics. In fact, when I started humming the Hindi lyrics of the song playing at a local restaurant, my Sri Lankan colleagues got very fascinated.

Type three is what plays in the cool night-clubs of Colombo. Mostly English and can be a mix of retro as well as contemporary. Due to Thiyagi’s connections, I managed to witness a local band selection competition and I heard some talented guys. Of course they were playing the harder stuff.

Type four is of the Classical variety and is a mix of North Indian and Carnatic style of classical music. Frankly, I'm yet to hear anything from this genre anywhere in Sri Lanka, but I’m told that its there.

Type five would be the current songs from Bollywood. SRK, Aishwarya Rai, Hrithik Roshan are popular and young kids download this material on their mobile phones. These kids, usually aren’t the western night-clubs sorts.

The Japanese muse, Karaoke is big in Colombo and almost everybody who visits a Karaoke Bar is a decent singer. But, to my extreme discomfort they all invariably end up singing the great MUSH tracks. MLTR, Air Supply, Elton John etc are some of the frequently attempted artistes. AS one 'Neil Diamond' loving (to my happiness) Sri Lankan explained, ‘Sri Lankans are a mushy race.’

More on the famous Ceylon tea in the coming pages of the Diaries.

The photograph here is from the insides of Sopranos. The singers shown here are Menuka and Sasha. Good singers but once again, they sing MUSH!

The Emerald Isle Diaries - 6

2007-09-16T12:54:00.000+05:30

It began with serendipity and ended with an empty town.

The road from Colombo to Galle (pronounced “Gaul”) is sea-laced and worth a few photographs. Chaga, my cool colleague and friend was my companion for this work-cum-pleasure trip. Work for her and pleasure, for me. As we began to approach the outskirts of the region, the signs of the terrible Tsunami of 2004 started showing in the ruins of skeletal houses. Galle was one of the worst hit regions.

The village where we had work was about 40 km away from Galle and reaching there was like serendipity. We had no idea that it will be tucked in one of the tea valleys of the southern Sri Lanka…the Watawala tea estate which produces the famous brand Zesta. The weather, with its light drizzle was giving perfect accompaniment to the place. After dropping Chaga at the place where she had to be along with the people from the research agency, I did a trip of the ‘Village Green’ and the tea estates. The charming number by 'The Kinks' was running in my system while the drizzle continued. My love for tea added to the pleasure.

The journey from Village Green to ‘many many years back in time’ took me an hour. The drizzle had stopped by then.

History suggests that Galle is the Biblical city of Tarshish from where King Solomon drew Ivory, Peacock and other valuables. The modern history of Galle started in 1505, when the first Portuguese ship was driven here by a storm. In the course of time the port city saw three different rules….Portuguese, Dutch and finally the British. It was the Dutch who constructed the present and 90 acre Fort of Galle in the year 1663, and this fort was my reason to visit Galle.

Once inside the fort, I was transposed into another world. The city inside is one of the world’s best-preserved colonial landscape with its understated, sleepy charm. Its low-rise streets are lined with old churches and Dutch colonial villas, many of which retain original street-facing verandahs, their white plaster now stripped by sea breezes and weathered to a peeling grey and yellow. Interestingly, the city was left unharmed by the Tsunami.

Amongst the many churches inside, stands the very atmospheric Dutch Reformed Church. Built in 1755, its one of the finest Christian architecture that I’ve seen. With its enormous canopy over the pulpit and the attractive, ancient organ, the place saw me spending an hour inside it. The floor is covered in ornately carved memorials to the city’s Dutch settlers in English as well as Dutch, illustrating the brief life expectancy of the island’s early colonists. Although I’m a non-believer, I found calmness inside the ancient structure. Perhaps, it’s my love for all things old.

The day ended with me witnessing a town becoming absolutely empty in less than 10 minutes…an experience which will remain with me for the rest of my life.

Powerful earthquakes had hit Indonesia, resulting in a Tsunami scare. Having a disastrous prior experience, the people of Galle started running for their dear lives. Seeing them, the scare crept in within me too. Language problems with the driver of my vehicle and inability to get in touch with Chaga (phone networks had stopped working) who was still at the Village Green, just added to the confusion. Thankfully, I had the presence of mind to ask the driver to put on the radio and the guys at the station were doing a good job. They were repeatedly announcing that it’s just an scare and there isn’t going to be Tsunami and my driver kept repeating 'NO TSUNAMI'. Guess it was more to calm himself than me.

Rest of the evening was about the drive back to Colombo and nestling inside the hot bath-tub. Chaga managed to come back with the people from research agency in their vehicle. Being part of a Tsunami scare in the Galle region of Sri Lanka isn't an everyday affair.

The first photograph is of the beautiful dutch church from inside and the second one is of a street in the fort city.

The Emerald Isle Diaries - 5

2007-09-11T14:27:00.000+05:30

Largely immersed in work for the last few days, I’ve been neglecting the Diaries. So, woke up early today to make up for it. The morning ocean looks calm and easy, as if it has had a good night’s rest. BBC informs that Nawaz Sharif has been bundled off to Jeddah from Islamabad airport. That nation will always be in a state of chaos, I guess…pretty bad for the common citizens!

A week before coming to the Isle, I quit smoking…something which I’ve never attempted in the last 15 years of my smoking career. And, barring two occasions of temptations, I’ve been easily successful from staying away from the stick. One of them was the evening at Anuradhapura, mentioned in previous post. The next one happened at one of the restaurants of Taj Samudra.

I usually take my evening meals inside the comfort and convenience of my room, but this particular evening I decided to step out and check the eateries of the hotel. ‘Navaratna’, the popular Indian restaurant looked awfully crowded, driving me to the place next door, The Steak & Grill House. In a dramatic contrast, the place had nobody inside except a lady sitting on the pianoforte and softly playing ‘Lara’s theme’ while a couple of waiters watched her. The lady was playing quiet well. I had found my place!

In the course of the evening, she played a lot of my requests, and except for the extremely difficult ‘Moonlight Sonata’ they were all rendered very well, the best one being the peaceful ‘Air on the G String’ by Bach with its intertwining harmony and melody. Bordeux was great, as usual and the food perfectly went along with it. I text messaged to my friend in India,

“She has music in her fingers
While, I have a fork in mine.”

And suddenly, the evening felt incomplete without the white stick between my fingers. I asked the waiter for one and he replied that I will have to pick up a complete pack.

So, I remain a non-smoker. And you know what…it feels nice and healthy.

I left the pleasure-filled evening by thanking the lady who had made it so. I was humming the difficult sonata in my mind, trying to get it right.

With tomorrows dawn, I shall be headed towards the ancient port city of Galle in the southern part of the Isle. Its famous for its time-warped streets lined with historic Dutch villas. More on that in the next page of the Diaries.

The Emerald Isle Diaries - 4

2007-09-03T23:06:00.000+05:30

In their day to day living, Sri Lankans follow the principles of Zen Buddhism. No matter what religion they have in their surnames and faith, they follow the art of Zen. Zen teaches you to be mindful and aware of your surroundings and that’s how the people of the Isle are.

They will always keep the door open for the next person, they will always ask you if you slept well, they will try to sense every expression on your face to assess what you want; they will listen to whatever you are saying and then they also listen to the unsaid. That is Zen!

The Sri Lankan hospitality is astounding, almost magical and motherly. Back home in the city of Mumbai this kind of experience is unheard of. The last time I felt like this was with my parents as a child and with certain good friends.

With frequent halts for conversations along with some extremely sweet Ceylon tea, we reached the UNESCO heritage city of Anuraadhapura by the evening. It’s a town full of Buddhist history and ruins from the 4th century BC. Legend has it that it was the fabled capital of the Asura King Ravana in the Ramayana.

Smirnoff, bought at the local Cargill superstore gave us company for the night at a local resort called Nuwarawera Rest House. Sitting next to a lit pool and a 'witchy looking' tree, we did full justice to the famous brand of Vodka and the evening. A black cat kept walking around our feet. We talked about various superstitions, clients, marriages, love and personal philosophies.

The next morning saw us turning into tourists. Sri Lanka's largest Stupa called the Jetavanaramaya belittled me with its size and grandeur. At a height of over 400 feet (120m), it is the tallest stupa in the world, largest brick building ever built, and 3rd largest structure in the ancient world, after the two largest of the Great Pyramids of Giza. Next stop was at the Mahabodhi tree, which is said to be the sapling from the original Bodhi tree from Bodh Gaya, a town in Bihar. Interestingly, Bodh Gaya happens to be the city of my origins too. Sadly, this important temple is very ill-maintained. Some more ruins from the BC era, around the city and we were on our way back to Colombo. A little halt at a charming, seaside village of fishermen was beautiful. Because of the paucity of time, we excluded the famous Sigiriya Fort and Elephant Sanctuary for another day.

By the time, I reached the hotel, I was extremely exhausted. A couple of drinks from the Red Label gifted by my friend Mr Shaffie proved to be of great help. It put me to a sweet and dreamless sleep.

Today was pretty critical and successful in the context of work.

And thats how the world's tallest Stupa, completely made of bricks, looks like. Notice that its top is broken. It was discovered in that state in early 1900s.

The Emerald Diaries - 3

2007-08-31T21:21:00.000+05:30

The last drink of J&B stare at me from the green and yellow bottle, waiting to be sipped by my lucky lips. By the way, I used to like that song when I was a little baby. And interestingly, this last phrase happens to be the beginning of the song. This happened without design, like this trip to the Isle.

A lot has happened after that Sunday evening at the Odel. Let me try and give you a brief update on the last 5 days. It began with a road journey into the sea of greenery. We headed to the south of the island on the Galle Rd. with my polite and friendly colleagues to get the flavor of the rural provinces of the area. Amongst many other things, the two most striking aspects were their high standard of living and the enlightened behavior of women. Most of the houses had fine curtains and women, smilingly willing to talk to the strangers. Indian rural scenario, largely is very different. The high point of the day was a very scrumptious and authentic Sri Lankan meal cooked by a qualified pianist (and a music teacher). She stays in the so-called rural Sri Lanka and happens to be the wife of one of my colleagues. The evening snack for our 'gang of eight' was delicious Hoppers and Sri Lankan chutney at a roadside joint.

The next two days were full of work at Colombo…always beginning with a great breakfast at the hotel. Interestingly, the hotel hasn’t been able to provide me with the Golden Orange Pekoe yet. Considering that this is the land famous for its tea, it’s a lapse from Taj Samudra’s end. They've promised it and I shall tell you when I get to have a sip of it.

Yesterday took us to the hill-town of Kandy. Having stayed in the town for some eight years or so, Thiyagi (the colleague who sets the dance floors on fire), was our perfect guide. People continued to be polite and the hill-station air was cool on our skins. The cargo-shorts of ODEL debarred me from entering the holy temple of Dalada Maligawa, famous for Buddha’s tooth and the unfortunate ’98 bombing. A quick shopping of the traditional Sri Lankan sarong with Thiyagi’s help, saw me getting inside the temple. The place was peaceful and full of history. The long day ended with a warm meal at the lovingly built house of Thiyagi along with Buster, Spotty and Eddie and several nameless fishes. It included String Hoppers and Prawns, carefully prepared by her quiet and gentle mother.

Today was a long working day in Colombo. Tomorrow, its going to be the north-western province of Anuradhapura with the famous Nuwaara Eliya and Sigiriya Fort.

Bohmo Stuti for reading me, my Ambalayas! ('Many thanks' for reading me my 'mango friends'...which means, my 'sweetest friends')

And that's the photograph of the temple.It used to be the Sri Lankan Kings palace, once.

The Emerald Isle Diaries - 2

2007-08-27T21:59:00.000+05:30

I was woken up from my Bordeux induced slumber’, by my friend’s (notice the transition from a ‘client’ to a ‘friend’) call. He wanted to know whether I was up to a little trip to ODEL. I was. Now, ODEL is this famous place whose fame precedes intentions of visiting the Isle.

It’s a shopping arcade for some of the finest clothes and accessories from all over the world at great prices. It’s housed in what looks like a huge cottage (with escalators), which is much easier and sweeter than the maddening modern day shopping malls. Both tourists and locals are in love with the place. You’ll also find a sweet coffee shop as you enter and an outlet of Sri Lanka’s famous ‘Elephant House Hot Dogs’. I came back to the hotel with one cargo shorts, two T-shirts and a feeling of ‘another day well spent’. Two small pegs of J&B with some Crab Bisque guided me to sleep.

Today was extremely busy with five meetings, a good lunch with my colleagues and an insightful discussion on the political situation of the country. Tomorrow promises to be a day full of newer experiences as my colleagues plan to take me to the interiors of the southern part of the Isle. As of now, it’s going to be a refill of J&B…Cheers!

And thats how ODEL looks from inside.

The Emerald Isle Diaries - 1

2007-08-26T17:05:00.000+05:30

As I sit writing this piece inside the plush (and wi-fi enabled) hotel room facing the Indian Ocean on the famous Emerald Isle sipping on a Bordeaux, I say to myself, ‘This is good life’. And the fact that, this is just the beginning makes this ‘good life’ even better. I am in Sri Lanka for a month on work and the nature of this project requires me to travel across the island!

The first sight of the island, as the aircraft was lowering on the city of Colombo was enough to make me happy. It was as if we were landing on a sea of greenery with the palm and coconut trees serving as the waves. It was pleasantly different from the kind of sight I am used to while landing (think Bombay).

The next aspect which added to my happiness was the manner in which Sri Lankans speak. It began with a very well made Sri Lankan movie I saw before coming to the island and continues with every interaction with the folks out here. They don’t talk…they sing! In Sinhalese and in English and perhaps any other language they will speak. In fact, I never knew English can sound so melodious!

So, one and a half day old in the island and as a popular TV commercial puts it, ‘Im loving it.’ Yesterday was extremely eventful, with work in the first half of the day and roaming around the city to check out the famous shopping arcades of Colombo, in the second. The evening, had other things in store for me.

It brought three beautiful Sri Lankan ladies dressed up in very pretty Saris to my hotel to pick me up (thanks to one of them who is my colleague at the workplace). The objective was to show me the famous night-life of Colombo. And what a night-life we had! First to a karaoke bar called ‘The Sopranos’ where two of my three ladies gave a smashing performance, then to a huge nightclub called ‘H20/Sugar’’ followed by a loud and authentic disc called ‘D’s’ where the ‘one who did not sing’ at the Karaoke bar, gave a smashing performance on the dance floor (despite the Sari). Rest of the night was spent in getting a car out of the way, my colleague getting booked for holding an expiry Driving Licence and feeding ourselves with a nice chicken-cheese roll at a local joint.

Today, being a cloudy Sunday has been lazy and easy so far. Morning saw me having some good conversation at the breakfast table with my client. We are working closely on this project.

And, that is the view from my room.

Will keep filling this space with more from the Emerald Isle. Ayubowan!

2 pages from the last 15 days

2007-08-16T12:48:00.000+05:30

Worldly pursuits kept me away from this space for the last fortnight but life happened while I was busy making 'strategic' plans. Allow me to share a couple of pages from the last 15 days.

Independence Eve in a taxi between Gurgaon and Delhi Airport

That’s how I spent that evening. Breaking my code of keeping this space free from bad experiences, I have to talk about this. Twice I have missed my flight from Delhi airport because of traffic madness between Gurgaon and Delhi airport. The latest happened on the eve of Independence…it took me 3 hours 30 minutes to reach a destination which shouldn’t take more than half an hour. Fabulous growth has happened in this satellite city of Delhi in a fabulously unplanned manner, leading up to road chaos, highly constipated traffic, road accidents, power cuts and a backache because of that 3 and half hour inside the taxi.

A 16-year-old stole my heart on a breezy Friday evening
She came dressed in an elegant black frock, sat on the pianoforte and played Beethoven’s ‘Pathetique’, a Sonata in C, in its totality with the finesse and élan of a mature musician. Later, she went on to play ‘Nocturne in E’ by Chopin, ‘Impromptu No.4’ by Schubert and a Polka by Berkeley with the same confidence and skill. Only when she got up to accept the warm accolades of the audience and a bouquet from National Center For The Performing Arts (NCPA), her shy girlishness got exhibited. Her name is Anushka Godinho and she started learning music at the age of 5.

This happened at a beautiful Western Classical concert we (me and my good friend) went for at the NCPA, Mumbai last Friday. This great institution provides a very useful platform to these budding artistes to display their talent. It helps nurture & support new talent and keeps the genre of Western Classical music alive…a great effort, I must say!

The other musicians of the evening were 2 young men. A 20-year-old Classical guitarist, Samuel Lewis from Bombay and 23-year-old, Murugesan on Recorder from Pondicherry. Samuel (who also plays the Organ) performed Bach, Tarrega, Albinez on the nylon strings with perhaps the passion and memory of the composers themselves. He ended the evening with a beautiful version of ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow’.

Murugesan handled compositions of Debussy, Vivaldi & Purcell. Personally, I don’t like Recorder as an instrument so I shall reserve my comments on the same. Think I will do the same for Murugesan.

Hope this description of that lovely evening cancelled out the negative energy emanating from my first experience.

Later, that evening I enjoyed some scotch and conversation with a couple of old friends (including the good friend mentioned earlier).

Michelangelo Antonioni (1912 - 2007)

2007-08-01T15:44:00.000+05:30

Another master movie-maker breathed his last on the evening of the same day, Bergman expired. Michelangelo Antonioni, the Italian auteur, expired on 30th July, 2007 at the age of 94. Whatever little I have seen by him has made me like his dreamy and elegant style. Martin Scorsese appropriately called him 'A Poet with the Camera'.

'Blowup' (1966), his first movie in English, is one of the most stylish depiction of an era and place in cinema history...London in the 60's bursting with rock music, smoke and nudity. The movie went on to inspire many later filmmakers, most notable of them (for us, Indians) is Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron. Bergman loved this one! (am referring to 'Blowup')

'Il Grido' (The Outcry) made in 1957 is the story of a man's inability to forget the woman he loves. Shot in black & white, with a brilliant soundtrack by Giovanni Fusco (Can somebody tell me how can i get hold of the soundtrack?) it sometimes tends to be very slow. But, heartaches are a slow killer. Bergman didn't like this one!

I shall try and pick up more of his works, specially the famous ones like La Notte (The Night) and L' Avventura (The Adventure). I love this photograph of him.

Ingmar Bergman (1918 - 2007)

2007-07-31T10:21:00.001+05:30

‘Our friend Berman is dead!’, my cinephile colleague announced from the other end and my reaction was, ‘Oh…he must've been 90, no?. '89’, my friend corrected me.

Natural death of any great artiste doesn’t arouse sadness in me because of two reasons. Firstly, because the person’s time had come and secondly, the artiste will always be alive through his works. So, without getting sad, I said to myself, ‘This calls for a post’. But then I remembered that I’ve already written something on the moviemaker, which you can find over here. So, what else do I put up as a tribute to the great man who turned (and will continue to turn) so many moments of my life into pleasurable ones and in such intelligent ways.

Then, I bumped into this excerpt from an interview, where Mr Bergman gives his opinion on other film directors. He replies with his usual brutal honesty and I had material for my post.

On Orson Welles:

Bergman: For me he's just a hoax. It's empty. It's not interesting. It's dead. Citizen Kane, which I have a copy of - is all the critics' darling, always at the top of every poll taken, but I think it's a total bore. Above all, the performances are worthless. The amount of respect that movie's got is absolutely unbelievable.

On Michelangelo Antonioni:
Bergman: He's done two masterpieces, you don't have to bother with the rest. One is Blow-Up, which I've seen many times, and the other is La Notte, also a wonderful film, although that's mostly because of the young Jeanne Moreau. In my collection I have a copy of Il Grido, and damn what a boring movie it is. So devilishly sad, I mean. You know, Antonioni never really learned the trade. He concentrated on single images, never realising that film is a rhythmic flow of images, a movement. Sure, there are brilliant moments in his films. But I don't feel anything for L'Avventura, for example. Only indifference. I never understood why Antonioni was so incredibly applauded. And I thought his muse Monica Vitti was a terrible actress.

On Federico Fellini:

Bergman: We were supposed to collaborate once, and along with Kurosawa make one love story each for a movie produced by Dino de Laurentiis. I flew down to Rome with my script and spent a lot of time with Fellini while we waited for Kurosawa, who finally couldn't leave Japan because of his health, so the project went belly-up. Fellini was about to finish Satyricon. I spent a lot of time in the studio and saw him work. I loved him both as a director and as a person, and I still watch his movies, like La Strada and that childhood rememberance - what's that called again?
The interviewer admits that he has also seen the movie several times, but just now the title slips his mind. Bergman laughs delightedly.

Bergman: Great that you're also a bit senile! That pleases me.

Later the same day, several hours after the interview, the phone rings:It's Bergman. 'AMARCORD!', he shouts.

On Francois Truffaut:

Bergman: I liked Truffaut a lot, I've felt a lot of admiration for his way to address the audience, and his storytelling. La nuit américaine is adorable, and another film I like to see is L'enfant sauvage, with its fine humanism.

On Jean-Luc Godard:

Bergman: I've never gotten anything out of his movies. They have felt constructed, faux intellectual and completely dead. Cinematographically uninteresting and infinitely boring. Godard is a fucking bore. He's made his films for the critics. One of the movies, Masculin, féminin, was shot here in Sweden. It was mindnumbingly boring.

On Andrei Tarkovsky:

Late one evening in 1971, Bergman and his friend and director Kjell Grede by pure coincidence stumbled upon a copy of Andrej Rubljov in a screening room at Svensk Filmindustri. They saw it without any subtitles. He ranks it to be one of his most startling and unforgettable movie experiences ever.

On modern American cinema:

Bergman: Among today's directors I'm of course impressed by Steven Spielberg and Scorsese, and Coppola, even if he seems to have ceased making films, and Steven Soderbergh - they all have something to say, they're passionate, they have an idealistic attitude to the filmmaking process. Soderbergh's Traffic is amazing. Another couple of fine examples of the strength of American cinema are American Beauty and Magnolia.

‘Seventh Seal’, one of his masterpieces depicts Man’s battle with Death over a game of chess…a battle which Death always wins. But not in the case of an artiste like Mr Bergman...his work lives on.

Creeque Alley - The Other Song

2007-07-27T16:53:00.000+05:30

We know them for ‘California Dreaming’ but I am going to talk about another great song by them called ‘Creeque Alley’. I am talking about one of the essential American band of the 60’s, sweetly called ‘The Mamas & the Papas’.

This song is an amusing description of how the Band was formed, with facts, names and incidents thrown in and set to a beautiful melody and cadence. Add to it the great vocals of Cass Elliot (also known as Mama Cass because of her size and association to the Band) and Dennis Doherty (Denny) with a lovely accompanying flute and you are happily in the Creeque Alley. The other members of the band were songwriter and guitarist John Phillips and Michelle Phillips (they later got married). The song was written in the year 1967, when the band was living the ‘great hippie dream’ on Virgin Islands, living off their American Express card (which gets a mention in the song) in a club located on the road named, ‘Creeque Alley’ which gives the song its name.

In my knowledge, no other band has chronicled their history and the life that they led in such a wonderful fashion. You will find a very good and complete analysis of all the lines of the track over here. The band was active between 1965 – 1968, making 5 albums and giving many hit singles. The name of the band happened from Cass’s response to a television talk show. You can use wikipedia to know the details of the story, if you are interested.

Enjoy your weekend! I am going to try and do the same in the difficult atmosphere of our country's capital.

Manhattan, Broadway and Vienna

2007-07-23T18:51:00.000+05:30

A week ago, I added 14 new titles to my DVD collection and 3 have already been watched and loved.

Manhattan (1979, Woody Allen) :
The second edition of what is known as the 'New York Trilogy' by Woody Allen continues to explore the craziness of modern day relationships, with Manhattan skyline and Gershwin's beautiful score working as the background. The small transition that has happened from 'Annie Hall' to this one is just that the number of relationships studied has increased. Mr Allen's inimitable style remains the same and so does the humor. With precious lines like 'Gossip is the new Pornography' this classic can be taken as an academic study of the times. Also, it paved way for many modern day, popular TV sitcoms like Seinfeld and Friends. The black and white photograph here, has become one of the iconic shots in the history of movies.
Did you know that our very own Zubin Mehta conducted the Gershwin scores for the movie? I didn't. Now, with first 2 editions in my collection, will be looking out for 'Stardust Memories'.

Singin' in the Rain (1952, Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly):
Somehow, I missed out on this classic and when I watched it yesterday, I realised the truth behind its iconic status. Its one of the best movie from Hollywood on Hollywood, full of great songs, dance and some satire on the shallowness of showbiz.
It has a beautiful love song called 'You were meant for me' sung by Gene Kelly and later sung much more beautifully by Sting.

Amadeus (1984, Milos Forman):
I am still basking under the pleasure and impact of the movie which I finally managed to watch. My friends who have been asking me to go through the 'Amadeus' experience for a long time would be very happy. When I get out of this pleasure trip, I shall write something about it...Right now, I don't want to spoil the trip.

Forever Changes

2007-07-17T18:30:00.000+05:30

Thats the name of a wonderful album of the 60s by a lesser known band, simply called 'Love'. I use the title to announce this change in the look of this blog. It has resulted from the feedback, I have been receiving from my readers. The last one appeared in my previous post by a 'Smiling Dolphin' and I decided that I cant go on troubling peoples eyes, specially those of a Smiling Dolphin.

Try listening to the album. If you find difficulties finding it, you can always come to me.

Holiday State of Mind and Machiavelli

2007-07-16T15:24:00.000+05:30

In the last post I mentioned about how I am not in the ‘fiction state of mind’ these days. It follows from there that I haven’t read any work of fiction in a long time and I blame it on the lack of what I call as a ‘Holiday State of Mind’. (The Last novel for me was a very mediocre and hence, totally forgettable ‘Memoirs of My Melancholy Whore’ by the great Mr. Marquez. I wonder what happened to his greatness in this last work…perhaps it’s the age). Let me spend a small paragraph on this state of mind.

Till 2 years back I was living in this ‘Holiday State of Mind’, and this state was on from as long as I can remember things. Living life in a conversation with a friend, or in the piano solo of ‘In my Life’, or in the loneliness of Zimmy’s poetry, or in the existentialist pages of ‘The Fall’, or just in the plain delirium of the moment….it was a series of living right here, right now…never a tomorrow! In the process, I absorbed some good and evil. Some of the goodness gets reflected in this space (I hope) and we shall keep the 'Evil' for some other occasion. Under the present circumstances, things have changed a bit. Now, I need a real long holiday to read a work of fiction and its been a while, since I had one.

So, continuing this streak of reading ‘non-fictions’, I picked up the famous ‘The Prince’ by Niccolo Machiavelli to revisit. In my last visit, the book and its ideas were too revolting for my socialistic mindset (you can also call it ‘youth’) and hence I rejected it. In my latest visit, I just can’t stop appreciating its cold and clinical approach towards 'seizing and holding power', which is the single point agenda of this work. Its not that my mindset has changed drastically, but age arms you with the wisdom to appreciate and see the greatness of a differing philosophy.

When, in 1512, Machiavelli was removed from his post of a Diplomatic Negotiator in Florence, Italy; he resolved to set down a treatise on leadership that was practical, not idealist. His ‘Prince’ would be unencumbered by ordinary ethical and moral values; his ‘Prince’ would be man and beast, fox and lion. Let me present an excerpt from this work to elucidate the cold (and intelligent) amorality of it.

“Therefore, it is to be noted that in seizing a state one ought to consider all the injuries he will be obliged to inflict and then proceed to inflict them all at once so as to avoid a frequent repetition of such acts. Anyone who acts otherwise, either through timidity or bad judgment, will always have to keep a dagger ready in his hand, nor will he ever be able to trust his subjects since, because of continually renewed injuries, they will never be able to feel safe with him. Injuries must be committed all at once so that being savored less, they will arouse less resentment. Benefits, on the other hand, should be bestowed little by little so as to be more fully savored.”

Taken from Chapter 8, ‘Concerning Those Who Become Princes By Evil Means’

This piece takes me to the last sequence of the movie 'Godfather', wherein Michael consolidates his position as the new Godfather by an orchestrated and programmed annihilation all his enemy forces…all at one go!

On another note, why isn’t this text taught in the Business Schools to teach the techniques of leadership. Maybe it is a part of some Business course curriculum and I don’t know of it or perhaps it gets rejected because of the inherent amoral principles of it. Do let me know if you know of this ‘treatise’ being in the syllabus of Business administration…just for my curiosity!