A R Rahman - who keeps promises

Two years back when rickshawallon ka apna hero cum music director cum singer Himesh Reshmmiya expressed his wish to sing for A R Rahman, I could sniff that there was something more in between the lines. For me it was the beginning of a real life drama where the two protagonists come from two opposite stratum of culture.

There is no common platform where these two persons can be compared apart from the fact that both are Hindi film music directors.

Some images flashing in my mind:

Himesh Reshmmiya was the judge of a popular music talent hunt show. There was a boy whom Himesh was mentoring. Every time that boy was losing out on votes from his nearest competitor, Himesh used to scream at the top of his voice and would 'promise' him 'another' song in his forthcoming film. Now the scene was that, at that time Himesh was at the peak of his career as music director and was having numerous projects in hand; whereas, that other boy's mentor was Ismail Darbar who had nothing but to smile and digest the insult as he could not 'promise' any song to his disciple as he had no project in hand. This action of Himesh brought huge applause in the set and also 'good words' for him. Eventually when that movie released where that contestant of that talent hunt show was supposed to sing three MAIN songs had only one remix song sung by his loved disciple. I know NOBODY really bothers to know who sings which song NOWADAYS but what about the promise? And that promise which is made in front of so many viewers?

Another image:

When A R Rahman composed the song Tere Bina for Mani Rathnam's Guru, he asked Qadir to sing it and he actually recorded the song with him. But Mani Ratnam wanted Rahman to sing it and he was not ready to listen to any arguments. When Rahman saw that there was no way to convince Mani Ratnam, he sang it. But he was not in peace. He broke a promise that he had made to Qadir. After that on every possible occasion whenever Guru soundtrack was mentioned, A R Rahman made it a point to mention this incident to the media, which was more like asking for the forgiveness from Qadir. Someday later Sony Music brought out an MP3 with Rahman's songs, including Qadir's Tere Bina in the CD and thus Qadir's song reached to millions. No prize to guess who might have requested the company to put that song.

Now back to present day. Suddenly one day Himesh Resmmiya makes a sensational statement in the media that he being a huge fan of A R Rahman, he would like to sing for A R Rahman. The media gets excited. They ask A R Rahman on every subsequent interviews that when he was planning to give Himesh a song. Probably here comes the cultural difference between two people. While Himesh made this comment just for some extra publicity, Rahman really believed him. Though he never promised anything to Himesh (at least via media), two years later when A R Rahman finally composes a tune for Himesh, the latter turns it down for some stupid reason.

The media must be happy with such a live drama happening through them and there must be many articles on this incident explaining many things from many perspectives. But this incident once again proves that no matter how a person lives or tries to live, his real instincts finally comes out just like Himesh's dirty nature came out.

Yuvvraaj Music Limited

Yuvvraaj is different. It had to be different as it’s by Subhash Ghai. And this is exactly what I had expected it to be, though I had expected it to be some different at the same time.

Yuvvraaj seems to be a perfect platform where Subhash Ghai utilized his rare chance to chop off Gulzar’s free imaginative wings and A R Rahman’s melodic romanticism with his thousand-times-repeated and as-old-as-mountain thoughts to the fullest. This man seems cannot think something beyond than what he is doing for ages. The inlay card contains visuals of the songs that vouches it to be nothing different from Taal or Yaadein (Yuckkkk!!!!) or Pardes (Yuckkkk again!!!!). How long will we see the movies with the same old story with same old stupid treatment especially now, when we have so many new people with innovative thoughts coming to make cinema?

Taal music was an unusual escape from Subhash’s usual claws. May be this was the reason behind those rumors that said that A R Rahman and Subhash Ghai had serious creative differences in the brainstorming sessions and that Subhash Ghai interferes in the music development process more than he was required. My heart asked me to believe those rumors and I was very happy with the thought that AR would not work with Subhash Ghai again. But Yuvvraaj was waiting and I am just not liking it.

Yuvvraaj comes with the same old use of instrument, the same old use of percussion, the same old use of vocals and most importantly the same old shade of Western Classical music? Had Yuvvraaj were by Mani Ratnam and not by Subhash Ghai, I would have blamed A R Rahman for this clichéd sound of Yuvvraaj. But if you take this shy man’s words seriously then you would remember that while asked ‘How come you are always at your best when you work with Mani Rathnam’, he replied ‘With Mani, sky is the limit’. So how would a creative man deliver within defined limits? This is what Yuvvraaj music is. It’s limited. It’s limited to Subhash Ghai’s clichéd thought.

But still Yuvvraaj is NOT a trash. Yuvvraaj has its moments too. There are some magical but brief moments for AR fans when his soul flashes out suddenly from under the hammered loud presence of Mr. Ghai. There are some out of the world surreal preludes and interludes that come and go only to assure you of AR’s presence. But for sure, there’s nothing left for Gulzar fans. Yuvvraaj poetry is as flat as highway.

When it is true that Subhash Ghai has nothing new to give as he can’t actually think new, it is also true that Yuvvraaj marks A R Rahman’s failure too. This time he couldn’t surpass Ghai’s yawning ideas like he did in Taal by inducing life to that lifeless movie.

Start with BANG BANG!!!!!!

My day today literally started with a BANG, or to be precise with a phone ring. I was deep in sleep the moment the phone rang and the next moment I was literally JUMPING with joy. It was Vidhi and she was calling from LEH!!!!!!

She mailed me somedays back that she was going for trekking to Leh and I have no idea how this grand news skipped my mind that is always contaminated with storyborad templates, graphic assets, writings standards, acronym folders, etc, etc......

So, when she called today morning and said that 'Hey, I am calling from Leh'...I started jumping :)

I remember how we used to write for travel portals and used to dream going places. Leh was always one of the five top destinations in our chart. I am so happy that she is now trekking there.

Well, as I am starting for home today (yes, after 1 long year)and as I had no time to spare as I was getting ready to come to office, I realized the next BANG only when it actually stopped me. It's squirming embarrasing situation when you see your sandal strap coming adamently out of the sandal and yes, this was the second BANG of my day. Thanks a million to God that Purba was there with me who promptly came out with a solution (read auto) and we made quite a smooth whizz considering Mumbai 9 am traffic to the cobbler.

After one super energetic and super negative BANG, now I am waiting for the time to come when we will be well settled inside the train and when I will be able to have a long nap.

So, I am off home for next 10 days and so no blogging, mailing, chatting or orkutting till I come back.

Wish all a very happy Durga Puja :)

Shooting Star

Who? Me!!! :D

Yesterday I was off to Juhu bwach with my sister. We were hanging around and suddenly saw balloon shoooting game some steps ahead. We immiditaley started walking towards it as it was our most favourite game when we used to visit the yearly mela (fair) in Silchar.

I took up the heavvyyy gun and asked for the charge. The guy put the bullet inside and I shot it, pointing at nowhere and obvioulsy I missed it. Then that guy gave some tips as how to aim and where to aim, etc. He wouldn't spare his valuable advice with me had he known that it was me who can never hit anything but elephant with her aim. Anyway, this time I decided to listen to him and thanks to the dense population of balloons that everytime I shot one, it hit one that was 2-3 ballons next to the one I pointed. It was fun and I managed to hit 9 out of 10 bullets. My all time best!!!! I was laughing, jumping and screaming.

Now it was my sister's turn. She happens to be the 'thinker' player of hour home. She defeats me in all games starting from chess, carom (she's great shooter in carom), ludo, memory game, etc. The only game that I manage to defeat her is scrabble :)

Anyway, as I was looking forward at her performance, she kept missing one after another and finally managed to hit only 7 out of 10! I was laughing, jumping and screaming again. It was my day :) She was also happy to see me win at some game at last. She confesses openly that she actually feels bad that she defeats me so easily.

Abhimaan Again

Somedays back while rushing for office, I saw the news of Abhimaan being made again with Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai in the newspaper. As I was in a hurry, I couldn't go through the news to know who was directing it.

But not reading the article I not only missed the director's name, which I kept guessing but also missed out with the music director's name.

Somedays later while having a chat with a friend over phone, when he suddenly came up with the news that AR is composing for Rajeev Menon's Abhimaan with Abhi-Ash, I was awestruck with two thoughts: 1)Rajeev Menon would direct it? Isn't he the guy who made that disastrous Sapney? 2) AR? This is going to be acid test for him!

Then I took the pain to dig out that old news paper and read the entire story. What I could gather from there is that Rajeev Menon is again going for another gimmick cashing on the popularity of star couple Abhi-Ash and also banking on the emotional fact that they are actually the second generation couple to the original couple of original Abhimaan. What an idea!

But only one thought that pinching me is about the music. How will be the music? By doing this AR will be put to acid test against the legendary S.D.Burman. With all my honesty, I strongly feel that only person who can be compared to senior Burman in all manner is our AR.

But what will happen when Abhimaan will hit the market? The comparision is inevitable, but one's creation is stark contrast to another. These two music legends represent two different forms of music altogether. While one is more eloquent in subtle mir and emotional aspect, the other banks on fusion and mixing. But no wonder, both are miles ahead than their contemoraries. And having said that these two music directors represent two different genres, can their music be compared?

I think they cannot be compared as they say that an apple is an apple and an orange is an ornage.

But what about the Indian media? Indian news channels and news paper now a days cannot seem to think about anything beyond Bollywood. It's quite obvisous that there'll be rims written and kilometers filmed comparing every atom of the new Abhimaan with the old one. And the Indian media has always shown its fetish for rejecting the remakes turning a deaf to the innovative ideas. I just hope that in the process the great movie knowers of our country don't write off the music of the new one completely ignoring that fact that 1) A R Rahman's music style is different from S D Burman 2) Earlier Abhiman's music was classical music based while the new one will be rock based 3) The first one came 35 years ago and the world music has changed a million times than that and most importantly 4) Rajeev Menon's way of making film is far more complex than that of Hrishikesh Mukherjee.

Cancer that is Incurable

While attending a gathering at the Bengal Chamber of Commerce on 22.08.08, the West Bengal industries minister Nirupam Sen was stumped by a simple question from S B Ganguly, the Exide chief : “You are running the government. How can a handful of farmers come in the way of the project? Why don’t you speak to them and settle their grievance?” Yes, the meeting was held to address the Singur issue after Ratan Tata declared that he would rather shift his Nano plant somewhere else than putting his employees in danger in Singur.

Apparently, the Singur issue, that is worsening every moment, looks that simple from a distance. But if you pay some heed to the matter, you will get a Pandora’s box opening in front of you. There are more questions than answers that diagnose a cancer to this state’s development wing.

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee wants to do something that his ancestor Mr. Jyoti Basu carefully escaped to deal in his tenure in the fear of losing support and vote bank. So Mr. Bhattacharjee now faces countless obstacles in his path to make West Bengal his dream West Bengal.

The first obstacle is the disgraceful lady Mamata Banerjee (I cannot forget her image of dancing in the bonnet of Jyoti Basu’s ambassador drenched in rain). Clearly she has made this her personal issue as this is her ticket to front page. A ticket that can bring some light in her darker than dark political career.

Another obstacle is the inside party politics that Mr. Bhattacharjee has to deal with every time. I couldn’t be sure of this unless the Nandigarm incident had not happened. This is the major problem that binds Mr. Bhattacharjee’s hands stronger than anything else.

In my brief stay in Kolkata, I’ve actually seen people yearning for a strike that would give them an unexpected off from work. This mentality of people can be seen in the vacant buses during strikes in spite of Government promising for safe travel. This approach is not hidden from the companies and investors. They know it very well and this is the reason that the companies are not ready to extend their branch in Kolkata; and even if they do, the clients make it a point that no big or important project goes to Kolkata branch.

I really don’t know what will happen to the Tata plant; if they will really pull out their project from the state. But one thing is for sure that more the world will develop, more the people will earn, West Bengal will slip to even more darkness of underdevelopment, poverty if the current situation doesn’t change. If you take 15 minute ride from Surat, you will see one industry after another in both sides of the road. Thankfully the land where the factories have emerged never gave birth to potatoes and tomatoes like the Singur soil, which the opposition party is trying to save. Hasn’t the land produced enough potatoes in last 61 years; has anything changed in its surrounding? And look at Surat; it is the RICHEST city of the country. But where is Kolkata? Forget about competing with other metros, Kolkata cannot even compete with other state capitals and sate-second cities for jobs options or overall lifestyle. But whom to blame? The government? The opposition? The investors? The farmers? The people? There are more questions than answers that diagnose a cancer to this state’s development wing.

Some Distant Memories

Quite unexpectedly and accidentally I got hold of Sanchayita today. It was something I never expected when I went to talk to a fellow friend and found it on his desk wrapped in glittery paper. 'How come it's here, with you?'....was my first question to him...while I was flipping the pages to read the first poem, my all time favourite poem - Maranare Tuhu Momo Shyam Saman... 'One friend had been to Kolkata and I asked him to get it for me'....was my friend's answer. 'I'm taking it with me, I'm a bit free for some time now'...was my quick answer as I was already walking towards my bay; he didn't object though as he knows I'm not a book-snatcher.

It's such a wonderful experience to have this book on hand. While flipping the pages the old memories were gushing out from some hidden chamber of the brain, unvisited for a long time. It kind of gives me a guilt feeling that have I also abandoned it like all 'new generation' people are doing now a days. Reading a poem that also in Bengali, after all, is not an 'in' thing. Right? Or, may be I'm soundig like a nerd!

It used to be the long afternoons of summer vacations and brief evenings of winter vacations when my mother used to sit with Sanchayita in her lap, glass in her eyes and recite poems on public demand. Then those moments were very normal in our life, just like having lunch with tyangra maach or fighting with my twin sister. But now I realize how much precious moments they used to be. My mother's intense love for poetry and literature was something that always made us stay in touch with the works of Rabindranath Tagore. From the very childhood seeing the image of this snow-white-long-bearded gentleman made him a part of our family. He was ubiquitous; in the book covers, in the magazines, in the text books and more in my mother's presence. She always sings some bits or pieces while cooking or doing other works. My mother has this nightingale like voice. If sometime she was not humming anything, we used to be sure that something was wrong and she muct be upset.

Now whenever I go home I make it a point to have such a session at least once during my stay at home.

A Breed Called Shahrukh Khan Fan

Girls, ladies, aunties and grannies – in short women of all age seem to find something very interesting about this joker-like-superstar, which I have always failed to understood, in spite of being a ‘woman’.

In school, college, hostel, office, train, bus, wherever I have met these women, my disrespect for this plastic-faced star has become more and more deep.

In a very general situation when I come across someone new, or when I’m new in a place, very normally I always try to start conversation with them. After getting and giving the answers of the first few customary queries like “where from”, “what mother tongue”, “which college”, “which subject”, “previous work experience”, etc, etc, etc when the chit-chat session starts getting more informal and candid, I occasionally come up with some queries that I like to talk about.

As I ask my question “So what do you do in weekends?”, if the answer comes: “ Ohh, I just want to sleep after the hectic week. Sometime I go to the nearby mall and hang around”….

Me: “Ahem…”
Me: “So what do you do in free time? Do you like to read books?”
The Girl: “Yes I love to read books, but I never get time to read one.”
Me: “Ok, so what’s the last novel you read?”
The Girl: “Actually I bought ‘One Night at Call Center’ one month back, but I couldn’t even finish its first chapter yet.”
Then I ask abruptly “Are you a Shahrukh Khan fan?”
The Girl: “YES….I LLLOVE HIM. How did you know?”
Me: “Just a guess :)”...... and the conversation continues…..

Yes, just a definite guess. A girl who hangs around in a mall for time pass and prefers to sleep in free time rather than doing any constructive work, can only be fan of those brainless sugar candy romantic cheesy movies.

I have come across hundreds of such girls/women who can’t even tell when the last general election was held in India, or what is the full form of UPA, or the last Indian to receive the Nobel (forget about asking in which field), or anything that relates to society. They seem to be completely ignorant about the nation, state, society and even neighborhood except for the Page3 supplement that comes with daily newspaper. These are the people who do not even think about casting their vote during election but takes pride in saying “politicians sare chor hote hain. India ka kuchh nahi ho sakta”. These are the people who cannot tell the name of a single minister in the parliament, except for the PM’s name. These are the people who go to McDonald’s for lunch, and take pride in doing so. These are the people who never reads the first page of the newspaper or listens to TV news.

No wonder such brainless people can only enjoy the rubbish movies that this star loves to star in. It’s not that he hasn’t attempted doing something ‘meaningful’, thanks to his copy-cat nature. He did appear in Swades, which his honest fan base rejected like a toilet paper saying ‘how dare the director put our (beloved) SRK in a local train, crowded bus and rickety boat!’…what an irony!!!

But this is also fact that I know some super-intelligent girls too who love SRK! This is a mystery for me that how can a normal human brain actually tolerate him in the theatre!!!!

And the fact that what kind of boys/men are Shahrukh Khan fan calls for another debate and I better do not discuss that here.

It's Raining!

Who says good old days never come back? It has come back for me!

It’s raining day and night in Mumbai. I feel like my days of childhood has come back. My Silchar days, when we used to go to school/tuition/college all drenched and preferred to remain that way the entire day.

My Delhi days really took me far away from this fantasy of rains and clouds. First of all it hardly rains in Delhi; and even when it rains, you just cannot afford to dowse yourself. The rain is so cold and chilled there as if has come directly from the Himalayas that I would have surely caught pneumonia had I repeated my Silchar activity there.

So, finally after a long time I’m enjoying my most favorite season – rains :)

Kahin To.....

People who know me, or to be precise, who know my mobile number; know what song they are going to listen when they call me. I am being a very good human being decided to have such a hello tune for my mobile so that it can actually ‘purify’ (*wink*) the ears of my callers. So, I had Kehna Hi Kya as my caller tune.

I have bagged huge appreciation for letting people listen such a wonderful song whenever they call. I have got and sometimes entertained also requests like ‘I’ll call you to listen to the song, please don’t pick it up’.

I am not complaining. I am more than happy to do that being such a good human being I am :)

Of late, I started getting some mixed responses to my caller tune.

For example ‘Hey, when will you change your caller tune? I’ve been listening to it for last two years.’ Or ‘Why have you put such an old song?’

This actually saddens me. Honestly speaking, I am very much possessive about any ARR song. So I decided to change my caller tune.

Now, when I’m in such a suspensive mood, the OST of Jane Tu Ya Jane Na hits the market just like a fresh whiff of first monsoon air and I screamed ‘bingo’….No…I don’t want the chips packet…..I screamed because I got the perfect song for my hello tune.

So, my new hello tune is Kahin To.

Ada Lyrics – A Disappointment

This is a very general belief that a collection of unknown/distant known/difficult known words can make a good piece of prose or poetry. But my definition of good poetry says something else. I believe that unless the readers/listeners realize that piece of poetry completely, that art does not have its salvation.

Another general belief says that lyrics have no role in making a song beautiful or lousy. A lot of people has said me that they don’t really give ear to the lyrics of a particular song. But I fail to understand this concept. If lyrics really have nothing to do with the concept of the song then can ‘Man Mohana’ be sung with the lyrics of ‘Hai Rama’ or vise versa? For me a song without proper understanding of lyrics is like savoring a dish without smelling it!

As I was listening to Ada songs and as I was getting more and more disappointed with the lyrics, I was giving the concept of lyrics in Hindi cinema a serious thought.

For me, the lyrics in Hindi cinema can be of two types – thought driven or word driven.

Let me give an example of a thought driven lyrics.

Jo gumshuda khwab tha..
…………………………
Who loha tha
Pighal gaya
Khincha Khincha
Machal gaya
Sitar Mein Badal gaya
Roobaroo roshni

Is there any word that cannot be understood easily?

This is an exemplary piece of poetry that actually makes you wonder what the writer must be thinking; that how can anybody think so beautifully and convey his thought in such pleasant manner.

On the other hand the word driven lyrics say very simple things with some unconventional words. The words that seem to play hide and seek with you while instigating you to catch their meaning. This kind of poetry can take any song to a different height. Most lyrics by Gulzar are like that. For example,

Kabhi neele asmaan pe
Chalo ghumne chale hum
Koi abra bil gaya to
Zameen pe baras le hum.

But what to do with such lyrics that neither gives you food for thought nor encourages you to get the meanings of the words. For example

Ishq ada hai, Ishq sada hai
Ishq dawa hai, Ishq dua hai
Ishq baka hai, Ishq fana hai
Ishq wafa hai, Ishq jafa hai
Ishq niha hai, Ishq aya hai
Ishq rida hai, Ishq haaya hai
Ishq asa hai, Ishq gada hai

Such a piece of poetry is a total let down for me. Why these particular words picked? Because they sound similar? Except for the sentence “Ishq baka hai, Ishq fana hai”, the others seem to be made forcibly to match the rhyme. The meanings of two words in a sentence don’t complement each other!

Ada lyrics keeps disappointing me throughout the soundtrack. For example, when I heard

‘Tu hai niha, main hoon aya’ in Meherbaan song,

the immediate thought that struck me was that I just heard the phrase of niha-aya in Ishq Ada song also. Now it’s again used in the Meherban song! This so blatantly speaks against the lyricist’s creativity. He couldn’t think of any other phrase for the second song?

Then there is another song Hai Dard. I have no idea how ‘Tapish’ can be rhymed with ‘Khalish’! Only because they sound similar? And what about the cultural difference?

I wish Ada lyrics were a little more serious, the music would be more enjoyable.

Penguin's Cold Shock

Penguin Books recently came up with a series of books on Fiction Collection and Non-Fiction Collection to commemorate their 20 years in India.

I was in Landmark, Lokandwala last week and was amazed to see those books stacked in a very stylish manner. I could see three volumes on Non-Fiction Collection and two volumes on Fiction Collection there. All the books were huge in size and both me and my sister were tempted to have a close look at them. We picked one and started to check the index. We stopped at 'Chowringhee'. Though I have not read it, but I know very well that this is a celebrated novel by Shankar and also that it's huge in length. But in this book Chowringhee was fitted in three pages only! We both started to look at each other's face. How can it be possible?

Then we started to check for any novel in the index that I've already read. And found 'The Great Indian Novel' by Shashi Tharoor. It too had three pages alloted to its fate. I opened the page and was bewildered to find that they just picked one chapter from the novel and published it; not even the summary of the novel!

Honestly speaking, we were standing dumbstruck holding those huge books in hands, each one of which costs 250/- to 350/-. I fail to understand what made the publishers to come out with such a weird idea? Who on earth would buy these books just to read one chapter of some famous/infamous novel? Why would anyone read them? The entire concept appeared utter meaningless to me.

Cannes...Not Again !!!!!!!

Cannes Film Festival is on again. There are some facts about the festival that I have been noticing for last few years. The Indian media will again come up with millions of prints on the dresses of bollywood stars. But you will not find any information on the film festival! Every odd and oddest people will be mentioned for their cleavage showing gowns, but there will be not a single statement on which movie has the chance to win the most prestigious Golden Palm award.

I remember a friend of mine asking me 'Is Cannes a fashion show?'. I said 'Cannes is a city in France that holds the Cannes Film Festival every year.' I don't really blame her for such a question as that is what the media has projected Cannes to be. Only thing that we get to see, read and hear about Cannes is 'which Bollywood star wore what'. The entire Indian media seems to be interested in publishing one image of Aishwarya Rai and make some titillating comment on her dress.

No where till now I've come across a single statement saying that it was the year 1956 when one Indian film made us proud in Cannes by winning 'Best Human Document'. I know no one is really interested to know the name of some dark arty kinda film. But how can I forget that it was my most favourite movie 'Pather Panchali' by Satyajit Ray?

BTW, Cannes is pronounced as Kaan and NOT as Kaynz.

Why Jaipur?

Now when Indian Mujahideen took the responsibility for bombing Jaipur, there’s no more confusion regarding who did it. Whatever be the name of the terrorist group, one thing is confirmed that it’s an Islamic group and is fed by two of our neighboring countries. Those two neighboring country, for the one of which, India went on war to free it from the other. This is irony that the country who took birth from the death of thousands of Indian soldiers is now supplying terrorists to ruin it. That's a different story though.

The reason for this attack? The Indian Mujahideen has come up with an innovative thought for the answer. According to them, they wanted to hit the ever growing tourism industry in India thus ruining Indian economy hard.

Now this statement takes us to do some study on Indian tourism industry.

It's a wellknown fact that India is enjoying the footfall of thousands (if not millions) thourists' every year. Ever since Indian tourism industry came up with the ‘Incredible India’ slogan, the tourism scenario is just not same anymore. The statistics says that the influx of foreign tourists has more than doubled in last five years.

Interestingly, the two places that attract tourists the most are Agra and Rajasthan, in the order. Delhi, Khajuraho, Mumbai and Kerala follow later. So, in order to destroy the tourism industry, Jaipur seemes to be an obvious choice since it is the capital of Rajasthan. But why not Agra? If Agra alone magnets more tourist than the cumulative effort of the entire Rajasthan state, then why didn’t terrorists bomb Taj Mahal?

But I guess the answer lies in the question itself. Do I really need to say why Indian Mujahideen didn’t attack Taj Mahal?

Some Snippets

1

Yesterday till 12 midnight I was busy with one SUDOKU puzzle. This was the first time I was handling such a stubborn SUDOKU staff. It took me almost two days to finish it off.


But finally when I solved it, there was the real peace :-)


2

Much has been said, written, filmed, documented and presnted about the phenomenal characteristics of Mumbai signals. Beggers of all age stretching their hands seems to be as aboriginal to the city as the Arabian sea is. But for last two months I noticed something different. All the beggers were selling flowers in the signal instead of asking for free money. I don't know about rest of the city, but the sight at the signal next to my house was colouful. I was truly enjoying the view of rickety kids spreading their hands with a bunch of colorful roses!

3

A person sitting just next to the entrance door of my office put a small ARR image in the soft-board next to his PC. As I noticed it on my ways to enetring and exiting from office, I got very exited. I felt like having a chat with this person as till now only I'm looked like a unicorn for having ARR smiling on my desktop.

One day I found the guy sitting there and walked straight up to him. Here follows the conversation:

Me: Excuse me....

That Guy: Yes

Me: Hi....are you a fan of A R Rahman?

(That Guy looked startled, wondering what this girl wants to say!)

Me: You have put ARR's image here (pointing to the image). So I just wanted know if yoy are his fan.

That Guy: Well, I like his music, but I am not really a 'fan' of him. Actually I have put it here as it lists all Worldspace channels and I want to subscribe Worldspace.

(Then it was my turn to get shocked. I never noticed that it was Worldspace adverstisement!)

That Guy: Are you a fan of him? Do you want this pic?

Me: No no...Thanks...Yes..I'm his fan...anyway.....nice talking to you..bye :)

Three Stories

Today I got a forward mail containing three wonderful stories. I am posting them here as I don't want to lose them :)

The Turtles

A turtle family decided to go on a picnic. The turtles, being naturally slow about things, took seven years to prepare for their outing. Finally the turtle family left home looking for a suitable place. During the second year of their journey they found a place ideal for them at last!For about six months they cleaned the area, unpacked the picnic basket, and completed the arrangements. Then they discovered they had forgotten the salt. A picnic without salt would be a disaster, they all agreed. After a lengthy discussion, the youngest turtle was chosen to retrieve the salt from home. Although he was the fastest of the slow moving turtles, the little turtle whined, cried, and wobbled in his shell. He agreed to go on one condition: that no one would eat until he returned. The family consented and the little turtle left.Three years passed and the little turtle had not returned. Five years...six years... then on the seventh year of his absence, the oldest turtle could no longer contain his hunger. He announced that he was going to eat and begun to unwrap a sandwich.At that point the little turtle suddenly popped out from behind a tree shouting, 'See! I knew you wouldn't wait. Now I am not going to go get the salt.'

[Some of us waste our time waiting for people to live up to our expectations. We are so concerned about what others are doing that we don't do anything ourselves

The Frogs

A farmer came into town and asked the owner of a restaurant if he could use a million frog legs. The restaurant owner was shocked and asked the man where he could get so many frog legs! The farmer replied, 'There is a pond near my house that is full of frogs - millions of them. They all croak all night long and they are about to make me crazy!' So the restaurant owner and the farmer made an agreement that the farmer would deliver frogs to the restaurant, five hundred at a time for the next several weeks.The first week, the farmer returned to the restaurant looking rather sheepish, with two scrawny little frogs. The restaurant owner said, 'Well... where are all the frogs?' The farmer said, 'I was mistaken. There were only these two frogs in the pond. But they sure were making a lot of noise!'

[ Next time you hear somebody criticizing or making fun of you, remember, it's probably just a couple of noisy frogs. Also remember that problems always seem bigger in the dark. Have you ever laid in your bed at night worrying about things which seem almost overwhelming like a million frogs croaking? Chances are pretty good that when the morning comes, and you take a closer look, you'll wonder what all the fuss was about.]

The Pretty Lady

Once upon a time a big monk and a little monk were traveling together. They came to the bank of a river and found the bridge was damaged. They had to wade across the river. There was a pretty lady who was stuck at the damaged bridge and couldn't cross the river. The big monk offered to carry her across the river on his back. The lady accepted. The little monk was shocked by the move of the big monk. 'How can big brother carry a lady when we are supposed to avoid all intimacy with females?' thought the little monk. But he kept quiet. The big monk carried the lady across the river and the small monk followed unhappily. When they crossed the river, the big monk let the lady down and they parted ways with her. All along the way for several miles, the little monk was very unhappy with the act of the big monk. He was making up all kinds of acussations about big monk in his head. This got him madder and madder. But he still kept quiet. And the big monk had no inclination to explain his situation. Finally, at a rest point many hours later, the little monk could not stand it any further, he burst out angrily at the big monk. 'How can you claim yourself a devout monk, when you seize the first opportunity to touch a female, especially when she is very pretty? All your teachings to me make you a big hypocrite The big monk looked surprised and said, 'I had put down the pretty lady at the river bank many hours ago, how come you are still carrying her along?'

[This very old Chinese Zen story reflects the thinking of many people today. We encounter many unpleasant things in our life, they irritate us and they make us angry. Sometimes, they cause us a lot of hurt, sometimes they cause us to be bitter or jealous .. But like the little monk, we are not willing to let them go away.We keep on carrying the baggage of the 'pretty lady' with us. We let them keep on coming back to hurt us, make us angry, make us bitter and cause us a lot of agony.Why? Simply because we are not willing to put down or let go of the baggage of the 'pretty lady'. We should let go of the pretty lady immediately after crossing the river, that is after the unpleasant event is over.This will immediately remove all our agonies.There is no need to be further h urt by the unpleasant event after it is over.]

Thank you Vidya for sending me the mail :)

From Strike City to Striking City

All the auto drivers of Mumbai have gone for three days strike from Monday midnight. When commuting to office has become really difficult for a big section of the population in Mumbai sub-urban area, the rest population is not complaining though. The roads had never been so jam-free! So, for those who do not take their cars out but prefer to avail other alternative instead after suffering hours of motionless driving, it's time for them to celebrate.

For me the days of strike days in Kolkata are back. The roads are empty and everybody speaking about 'strike'.

But my question is, why blame Kolkata only for strikes?

Baichung not playing? Who cares? Amir, Saif hai na!!!

Everything is filmy in India. Even Olympic is.

Olympic is an event that unites the sportsperson and athletes from all across the globe in one place. But when it comes to India, more than the sports, its Bollywood that speaks louder. When all countries bestow the rarest honor to carry the Olympic Torch on the shoulders of their celebrated sportsperson, it’s film actors in India who get that privilege. This year the honor is showered on two popular Hindi movie stars – Amir Khan and Saif Ali Khan. Mikhail Singh will ALSO join them while taking a walk in the rajpath of Delhi.

Recently, Baichung Bhutia announced that he wont carry the Olympic Torch following the Tibet issue. But is there anyone bothered? Both media and public are concerned what Amir Khan and Saif Khan has to say on this issue. They don’t disappoint us; both have their own SAY over the matter. So, please don’t mind over the fatuous comment they make, because it’s Bollywood who seems to be only one to bring bread-butter to the media. So there comes a report on torch carrying issue for Olympic 2008 with images of two film-stars in their vests flexing their muscle giving a killer look.

Probably this explains the focus of a nation and also the fact that why its national game cannot even qualify to enter the Olympics.

English...errrrr...German......

We generally come across thousands of forward mails a year. This is a mail that I really liked and thought to share with it with my readers as well as save here permanently. Here it goes:-

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as 'Euro-English' .

In the first year, 's' will replace the soft 'c'. Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard 'c' will be dropped in favour of 'k'. This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter. There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome 'ph' will be replaced with 'f'. This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.

Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.

Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent 'e' in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as
replasing 'th' with 'z' and 'w' with 'v'.

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary 'o' kan be dropd from vords kontaining 'ou' and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensi bl riten styl.

Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.

If zis mad you smil, pleas pas on to oza pepl

Here comes back my old friend!

The summer seems to have started again and so has my sleeplessness! Last night when I required to have a tight sleep more than anything following my week long activities of various kind, I actually kept wondering the entire night - 'why I cant sleep when I'm so tired'? This is a mystery to me!

As I met Him...

...I started hopping and jumping not even caring that the salty water was wetting my kalamkari salwar and the off-white edges of my dupatta! I was ecstatic…like others… But I guess I was happier than others as it was the first occasion I was touching the sea…the endless sea….the limitless sea….. I had read and written so much about its magical beauty! But nothing I could think of then except for listening to the heavy gurgling of the waves and watching them coming one after another…relentlessly…..

And then I met Him....the sea...the virile sea

Jodhaa Akbar - my take

Yesterday I saw Jodhaa Akbar, finally. I had got so many negative feedbacks before going to watch this. Still I knew that I would definitely be watching it and would definitely like it. And yes, I did like it.

I always loved to study the history of Rajputs and Mughals. My two years of experience as travel writer gave me more exposure to that when I wrote extensively on Delhi and Rajasthan. So, the fact of Akbar’s getting married to Jodhaa Bai of Amer, Akbar’s immense faith on Moinuddin Chisti of Ajmer (Akbar actually walked in bare feet from Agra to Ajmer Sharif), Akbar’s rebellious brother-in-law whom he couldn’t kill in order to keep his promise made to his sister, his roaming around in the streets in disguise to know his own people, etc. are not unknown to me. The history also says that Jodhabai was the mother of Jahangir and there’s a mahal in Fatehpur Sikri in her name, which was not shown in the movie though.

But I really liked the way Ashutosh Gowarikar did his thorough research. The forts, palaces are still there but they are now surrounded by more than one examples of modern era. It must have been a headache for the director to take the shot at proper angle in order to avoid the lamp posts, electric wires, hoardings and thousand other examples of modernization. And he never gave up.

The fight sequences are too good. The language was Hindi, but I felt like watching a Hollywood movie. No wonder, people who are listening to their moron friends and not going to watch the movie, are not even aware what they are missing.

But I must admit, I missed something in this movie too, the same way that I missed in Swades. It’s Amir Khan. I didn’t miss him on the screen, but I missed his intellect that bridges the gap between a class mind and a mass mind; just like it did it in Lagaan, Rang De Basanti and Tare Zameen Par. No wonder, Ashutosh Gowarikar is a wonderful director but somehow he misses to induce the ‘punch’ in his story telling that he finally misses out to catch the pulse of audience. Since the same story repeated with both of his post-Lagaan movies, probably we can guess whose head worked stronger behind the success of Lagaan.

This blog is special

This blog is special. This belongs to my colleague Ayan Chakraborty, who happens to be the first cartoonist I know!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Check his blog. He is too good.

The Kite Runner - my take

Seldom comes a writer with a novel that touches the hearts of the readers in such a manner that they start to feel a strange kinship with the characters he built. As readers, we start to understand the behaviour and nature of the protagonists such a way as if they are none but our blood relatives. Or at least it seems that we know each other for years....sharing a long cherished bond. The journey taken by the characters don’t merely remain confined in the black printed letters, but we also seem start to take an active part in it.

This is the same feeling I had while reading The Kite Runner by Khalid Hussaini. It is difficult to describe in one word what I felt for this novel. The words fail. The sentences never seem to be complete to describe the completeness. There are some novels that give you some food for your thought and there are some that give you an eye opening exposure to an unseen world. The Kite Runner doesn’t follow any such trend. Kite Runner just lets you feel the warmth of an extraordinary relationship, the sheen of loyalty, the coldness of cowardice, the colour of courage and above all a tale of humanity.

As I was lost in the book for two days of my last weekend, I was wondering what the last time was when I had the similar experience of knowing some unknown people who are still in my heart. Quite surprisingly, the search took me to 1996, when I read Jagori by Satinath Bhaduri. Jagori tells the tale of Nilu, Bilu, Maa and Baba spending days and nights in different cells of a jail in pre-independence era …living every moment a threat...a fright.

Thanks to Saif for lending me the book. Thanks to Tareq for telling me about the novel for the first time.

All are not Brain's call...some are Heart's

Scene1

I am chatting with a friend and abruptly he asks 'Which actor do you find the hottest?'

Denzel Washington...always - was my impromptu answer.

Then came the next obvious question 'which actress......?'

After some thought I had to say 'None'

Scene2

I am talking a friend over phone and over some topic I declare that 'Chtira and Sadhana Sargam are my two most favorite female singers'.

The next very moment I heard the question 'and most favorite male singer?'

After some thought I said 'Hariharan' but honestly he's not my most favorite singer; he is just one of my 'most favorites'.

These two incidents compelled me to think that our likings and adorations don’t always follow any pre-defined rule. They are just bound to follow one rule - the naught-rule of heart, where no logical reasoning is applicable! Just like there is no reason behind why I like Denzel Washington more than anyone, the fact that I don't find any actress that interesting has no reason either. Likewise, why the voices of Chitra and Sadhana Sargam tranquilize my senses but none else has no explanation either.

Pudhiya Mannargal - a beginning

Yesterday I listened to Pudhiya Mannargal after probably 3-4 years. Every time SPB starts Eduda Antha Sooriya, I seem to traverse the time span of 13 years in a carpet ride and within a moment I land on the day – 25th February, 1995.

I remember that day so clearly like it was nothing but yesterday! It was the first day in my life while returning from school, keeping the rickshaw on wait, I and my sister went to Kamal Music Store. It waw the first time I was going to any cassette shop by myself to buy something. I was nervous on my query and with much courage I asked the man on the counter ‘Do you have Tamil cassettes?’

The guy (Kamal, I came to know later) nodded and very coolly went inside coming back with four Tamil cassettes. I was so bewildered seeing so many Tamil cassettes in front of me, not being able to read the tooth breaking unknown names, not being able to find the name of the person I was looking for, that I finally I asked Kamal ‘Which are here by A R Rahman?’

Very coolly (again) he sorts and hands me over two cassettes – Pudhiya Mannargal and Gangmaster (Telugu). I remember, by that time I had almost ceased breathing with excitement!

This was the start. The start of listening to songs in an unknown language, the start of being answerable to all who think why I listen to Tamil songs when there are so many Bengali songs available, the start of a journey which even I was not sure whether I would be able to pursue. I don't know how many times I listened it over just to find out one day that I remember the entire lyrics of almost all the songs without understanding a single word! I can never forget how I used to sit for hours holding the cassette in my hands while trying to read the curved letters and how one day I came up with writing the first tamil word of my life - ra ha ma n.

Yeh hai Mumbai meri jaan......

City is turbulent.

Reason?

It is the most prospectous city of the country.
People from all over the country make their journey to this city with eyes full of dreams.
The city people are happy with the tag of 'cosmopolitan metro' behind the city name.
The city people are happy to be counted as the residents of the 'best' city in the country.

So

There are some people who think that the outsiders are spoiling the city culture.
That the 'outsiders' are making the job market competitive.
That the 'outsiders' are making small piece of land untouchable for the middle class.
The 'outsiders' are causing the miles long traffic jams and brimming the buses.

So someone comes forward and takes the initiative to clean the city from 'outsiders'.......

Crossword Book Store – a saddening experience

Last Sunday I went to the Crossword book store situated in the 1st floor of Shopper’s Stop complex in Andheri West. Though I had not planned to go there, I just happened to drop at Shopper’s Stop and thought to check it out. Generally I buy book after some research on internet and as then I was not properly focused as what to buy, I decided to go for the safe purchase – some Ernest Hemingway stuff. Another reason for going there was that I was running short of my collection and I was reading my last but one book!

No one in the shopping complex seemed to be concerned about the Crossword shop! I had to ask two people to get to the shop. When I finally located it, I was depressed – it was a tiny shop! Anyway, I entered only to discover that the store collection was even more depressing –

The half of the shop collection is dedicated to children with colouring books and some story books.

Among the rest half, the further half is devoted to Bollywood movies with VCDs/DVDs/CDs, film magazines and books on film personalities (You can’t deny the fact that you are in Mumbai!)

Now there remains the residue part which is allocated to general readers. The collection included –

Some Sidney Sheldon
Few John Grisham
A lot of Shobha De (yuckkkkkkk!!!!!!!)
A lot of Robin Sharma (yuckkkkkkk again!!!!!!!)
Some Paulo Coelho
Some Samit Basu
Some Chetan Bhagat
Some famous singular books like Interpreter of Maladies, The Last Mughal, The Kite Runner, Thousand Splendid Suns, Gora (Yes, the one by Tagore!), The Age of Shiva, Chowringee, etc.
And some new releases.

I couldn’t find a single book by Hemingway (the search was easy, as there were not much books in the shelves) and went up to the shopkeeper and asked him to find me some of his novels. When he came up with ‘Old Man and the Sea’ saying this is the only one they have, I moved my attention to somewhere else and fortunately got ‘The Pilgrimage’ by Paulo Coelho and very accidentally came across with ‘A Spot of Bother’ by Mark Haddon (I loved his ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time). I was happy to get these, though I was still looking for ‘The Warriors of Light’ by Coelho.

This was the first time I was visiting any Crossword outlet and I can swear that I’ll never visit it again. In Delhi my favourite book store used to be ‘Book Worm’ situated in the inner circle of CP, near PVR Plaaza. I had been to Galgotia also a number of times. Everytime I used to visit Book Worm or Galgotia, I used to curse myself for my bank balance! But here I was finding it difficult to get books worth of even 1000/-! I guess I will have to keep searching until I get that kind of book store here and till then I'll have to rely on British Library.

The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari - my take

Please don’t write something that you don’t believe at all. Still if you try to do that deliberately, then probably you will end up writing a crap like ‘The Monk Who Sold his Ferrari’.

Though the novel-name was a complete no-no for me, I thought of giving it a read only when I came to know that the author is an Indian. But honestly, I shouldn’t have tried it out. Only a person who has absolutely no vision can sketch a character like ‘Julian’. And the fact that he goes ‘somewhere in the Himalayas’ in India and returns back looking ‘half his age’ and that his seventeen year old colleague couldn’t even recognize him was a total shock! Give me a break! This guy has surpassed even the master mind of Ekta Kapoor in imagining things!

Well, after that I didn’t have courage left to proceed with the story, though I turned some more only to find some more shocks. Every page of it was like an episode of any cheesy daily soap – full of surprises at each beginning and ending of it and actually anything and everything was happening there.

The description of the mystery land ‘India’ was even more pathetic. Even the most biased portals of ‘Incredible India’ would be ashamed of those descriptions. And the language? Even more painful. Full of lingos and jargons, the novel looks more like a fictitious report on some nonexistent world.

This is one of the worst novels I have read in the recent times.

The Alchemist – my take

Very rarely we come across some pieces of art – be it a music piece, a painting, a poem or a novel, that opens up a new window in front of our eyes. And I believe that it is the responsibility of the artists or authors or poets to do that, if not again and again but at least for once in a life time. I found Alchemist opening some hidden windows of my mind that I never really realized that existed so strongly!

When I heard the name of the book for the first time, I wondered what this book deals with. The name suggested being some theory on alchemy – the study of chemistry practiced in the middle ages that involved changing base metals into gold. So I was not at all interested.

My first acquaintance with the writing of Paulo Coelho happened with ‘Like the Flowing Rivers’. I instantly fell in love with the immense sense of spirituality that his thoughts carried.

After that I was in a look out for Alchemist and recently I was able to borrow it from a colleague of mine. The book teasers never really interest me and this one saying - “A magic fable about following your dream” also could not arouse any interest in me. So I started reading it only because it’s written by Paulo Coelho remembering all the good and bad feedbacks I got about it.

What I felt was that the novel is all about positivity. It talks about the positive energy of life, the positive approaches of the world and the positive signs of the universe, which are termed here as omens. How rightly! The metaphors and symbols are so true. The king, the desert, the oasis, the war – everything is so meaningful to everybody’s life if we treat them as a reason to something!

And the statement - “And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it” is so true! I have experienced the force of nature, the omens so many times in my life but I really never thought that way! A mere book can’t really change the life of a reader but it may definitely influence the perception in a very strong way; if not permanently then definitely for a good long amount of time.

It's not Magic

They say learning is continuous, relentless. But What makes a person to outshine his own said words? What motiavtes him to hone his skills with every moment? And what if the person himself is the idol of millions?

In 1996 a Tamil movie released - Kadhal Desam with music by A R Rahman. The speciality of the movie was that three songs of the movie were sung by ARR. One of them was Mustafa Mustafa that became a monstrous hit at that time.

I remember reading an interview of ARR published in the Filmfare magazine just after the release of the movie. There the interviewer asked him a question, which goes like this (I don't remember the exact words) - "You have sung three out of six songs in Kadhal Desam. Are you switching to full time singing?"

In reply, ARR said (Again I don't remember the exact words) - "My voice matched the characters of the film. I know my voice quality. I will never sing a soft romantic number".

After eight years a song comes that instantly touches billions of Indians spread all across the world. A song that made many NRI's to cling their pillows and cry for their homeland. No wonder, it was 'Yeh Jo Des Hai Tera' of the movie Swades, which was not very successful in terms of box office collection but was successful to touch people's hearts. This is a song that literally stops the heart beating for some moments and you never know when your cheeks become wet.

Now try to match the words said by the singer and composer of this beautiul song - A R Rahman about his own singing ability some eight years back!!!!!

My early plunge into Mumbaiyaa Marathi

Somedays back while having lunch, a friend of mine asks me 'Do you know what gardi means?' I was clueless what he was saying. Then others started laughing saying 'she's really new in Mumbai'. Then they said that gardi means crowd, rush, etc.

Fine, I learnt it. Then that same friend asked me again 'do you know what kaanda means?' I was again totally clueless! Then they said that it means onion.

The next word was a shock! Someone asked me 'do you the meaning of batata'? This time the word seemed familiar to me and I said 'wada?'

Then suddenly all were pieces into laughter. And again I was totally and entirely clueless!
Then someone said that batata means potato and batata wada is a snack in Mumbai.

But I always thought batata wada is a single word!!!!!

While buying Jodha Akbar OST - an experience

On Monday evening I went to buy the OST of Jodhaa Akbar. No wonder, I was very excited as the long wait was going to finally end. As I entered the audio section of the Planet M, I saw two NRI ladies standing there holding the cd of Jodhaa Akbar and the Planet M guy was explaining something saying '.....the songs are classical. The movie is a period drama.....' I just picked my cd and said to the ladies 'This is by A R Rahman. You can always have it, I'm sure you will never regret later'. Then one of the ladies said 'Oh! This is by A R Rahman? Yes, I know, he is a great musician!'

Then I proceeded to see other collection in the store. While coming out, I met them again in the elevator. I asked whether they got it. And the lady said 'Yes of course. Thank you for saing that it's by A R Rahman'.

At that time I noticed the cover of the cd for the first time. For me or any other regular Indian cd buyer, locating the name of music director is not difficult. Our eyes are trained. But it may be difficult for a person who is not acquainted with the type of cover design used here. For example, those two ladies had very little idea about Indian movies. They were actually exploring Indian movies as I heard them asking for the OST of Pakeezah, Shree 420, Guide, Satyam Shivam Sundaram, etc. It's but obvious for them to skip the name of 'A R Rahman' written in the third row at font size 10. Once they came to know that it's by ARR, they did not hesiatate to grab it at once.

I'm sure many such people, who otherwise would like to buy any composition of A R Rahman without a second thought, will fail to even know that the cd they are holding is by none other than A R Rahman. It's pity! More than the actors, director or theme of a movie, shouldn't the OST of a movie be credited to its music director? Shouldn't his name come in a more visble way? And if the music director is such a big personality like ARR, doesn't his name need some extra weight?

It's a music to get the lyrics

As I listen to some of my Tamil favourites, I just cannot restrain myself from learning those sweet melodies. But learning a song was never so difficult, time taking and most importantly technology dependant before. The reason is nothing but the fact that the songs are in Tamil!

Here are the steps that I have to follow in order to learn a song -

1. Log in to internet and get the lyrics of the particular song transliterated in English.

2. Get a print out.

3. Rewrite the entire song in own handwriting. This is very important step I need to take in
order to pronounce the words properly. Because I strongly believe that Tamil words are the most deceiving elements in the world; they simply are not pronounced the way they look.

4. Start learning.

Apparently, these four steps don't seem to be very difficult. But what if I don't have a pc and printer with me? Getting the correct lyrics from just hearing the songs is almost impossible. So, suddenly in a lazy Sunday evening while listening to Anbe (Rhythm) if I wish to learn it, it just seems to be an impossible affair!!!

My day out to Haji Ali

Last Saturday I went to Haji Ali. It was such a wonderful experience to finally be there. I dont know for how long I had been yearning to visit the dargah. Can't even remember any particular reason behind that. Mumbai was never on my list to as I was always keen to settle down in Bngalore. I remember, the moment I decided to come to Mumbai, the first and only thing that I wanted to visit in the city was Haji ali.

Everything now seems to be pre-detremined and I seem to be a mere doll in the greatest force of nature. The day I joined my job here, the first person I happened to meet was Shaira. The very next day I asked her how I can go to Haji Ali and if she would be able to accompany me. She got so excited over that and said that even she was thinking to visit the place for a long time and actually she'd never been there!

So me, Shaira and two more of our colleagues decided over a date and we finally set for Haji Ali. Commuting in Mumbai is quite comfortable so our reaching to Haji Ali was not a problem at all. After that everything was simply blissful. The walk down to dargah, standing beside the mausoleum, tying the thread for mannat and getting the stroke of holy broom on head - everthing was celestial. We gave our chaddar to maulavi and he spread it over the mausoleum. I was standing there for quite some time, wondering as I was really there and then the maulavi gave me the prashad (I dont know exactly what it is called).

No need to mention of course, for the entire day the lines of Piya Haji Ali were buzzing in my mind. Consciously or unconsciously I was humming to the tunes almost relentlessly. Now, I can also relate to the words what I had been listening for so many years!

khuda apne waliyon se hota hai raazi
milegi ye dar se hamein sarfarazi
yaha dil se mango ye hazi ali hain
khuda ke vali hain

Take a trip in a bus!!!!!

Different cities, different characteristics. Even if you do not want to, you end up comparing the relative characteristics of them.

Let's talk about the nature of the mostly used public vehicles - buses in Kolkata, Delhi and Mumbai.

Kolkata is the most unorganized city I've come across. The buses stop anywhere and everywhere for any amount of time to get a single passenger. The conductors actually scream the destinations at the top of their voice. The important bus stops sound like a fish market at the important office hours. People can get in and get down from any of the doors. And moreover, the mini-buses have only one door!

Delhi is the capital city of India so things are better organized there. But it's undobtedly the most corrupted city I've come across. The blue line bus conductors actually bribe the governmnet ones for not plying in the office time! Though the buses dont stand in betwwen stops, but they take the liberty to stand for any amount of time just like Kolkata buses. The conductors there also scream at the top of their voice in their typical Hariyanvi accent.

The Mumbai buses are both organized and mysterious. Particular buses stop at the particular stops. You first have to check the board in the bus stand to make sure that the bus will stop here or walk ahead to the next bus stand. The bus numbers are written in Marathi (Thank God Marathi numbers look the same as Hindi numbers) and if you can't read that, then you will come to know that you have missed your bus only after it leaves the stand, as the number is written in English just near the back door. No point of running behind it, as it won't stop unless for its stop. The conductors never speak a word here about the destinations and it's always advisable to get a bus-route schedule in order to catch the right bus. And yes, if you miss your stop and move forward, there is no way of knowing it as the conductors won't call you out at your stop, unlike Kolkata and Delhi.

What's the mystery?

It is but obvious that after changing the mobile-sim card, we get to lose some numbers that are saved in sim-memory, smses and all call register information. But this time when I changed my sim card, I lost some smses that were very precious to me. And I was surprized by the fact that the deletion was on random basis!

I generally delete and clear my sms inbox in every 2-3 days. But there are some smses that I never delete. Those are the smses sent to me from my friends saying that they have 'met Rahman'. I even dont delete the reply smses I got from my friends after I met Rahman.

Very surprizingly, I lost two smses sent to me by Prabhu and XXXX after they met Him. Quite surprizingly I do have the further smses I shared with them, but not those ones :(

Note: XXXX does not want his name to be mentioned.

Jo gharon ko chhod ke hain chale

Sometime some music or some piece of poetry gets tied to the senses without even knowing or realizing it. We get so attached to it that after some point of time we start to posess it like our own asset! The song 'Mere Hamsafar' from Refugee is such a song that happens to be my all time favourite. But more than the song, it's the two lines coming at the end that captivates me. A simple thought said in a very simple way. But I've always found this two lines so meaningful to my life. It says-

Jo gharon ko chhod ke hain chale
Unhe kya daraayenge faaslein

Some Random Thoughts

So, finally I'm in Mumbai. And quite strangely, I'm finding the city so nice. Here I must confess that I didnt have any such expectations at all. The reason behind my such a mind set or prejudice, if you call it (though I try not to be prejudiced) is definitely my almost three years stay in Delhi. After coming here, I feel like I have come out of the dead lock that was shaping to be an infinite one. I feel so free!

I am yet again fotunate to have some real good colleagues and room mates. But I guess, everything in life does not come with such sugar coating. I'm suffering from an enormous longing for my family, my little kitchen and my small house, where I used to maintain each and everything. Sometimes I feel like my life has come to a full stop! Earlier I used to crave for sleeping at least half an hour more....and now......

Life never stops teaching you. And of course, for a headless adament person like me, no bumps seem to be adequate. There is no learning of the fact on my part that I SHOULD NOT discuss my private matters with anyone except my family members. But since I have not learnt the fact over the years, there is no limit of people taking my advantages. Yes, I feel bad, just like I felt bad on the previous occassions. But again, no one but I am responsible for that.

And of course there's is no stopping of people to misunderstand me! I think as a precaution, I should deliberately and immediately stop SMSing with people. C'on, this costs me too!

Amir Khan's next production - Delhi Delhi, which is reportedly going to be an out and out international project will be composed by SEL!!!! This news is confirmed by none other than Shankar Mahadevan himself! Lets face it honestly and confess it- that I am very sad :(

update: I guess this is the perfect post that justifies the name of my blog - a jabberwock!