Thursday, December 27, 2007

Dhikchik-dhikchik.....the jarring beats!! Melody lost???



Dhikchik...dhikchik..dhikchik...the 3 taal beat which has revolutionised the world of music in present times.

Anywhere you step into - disco...pubs....parties..or even religious ceremonies(quite a paradox!), you here the stereotype, anti-meditative sound which can get you a 'high' without any amount of hashish!!

But are we aware of OUR music which comes from our hinterland - the ever melodious beats of dhaak, ghungroo, ek tara?

One can sway in a trance to the beats of chou, rajasthani folk, santhali dance, the east godavari folk(as seen in the picture) to ecstacy level. But sadly we feel folk is a passe' and low class and goes well with some so called ''melas''.

It wont be too hard to challenge Indian folk music and dance with western hip-hop and the modulated beats of folk can anyday surpass so called pop music in beats, peppiness, melody and its effect on the soul.

As our great poet(Rabindranath Tagore) rightfully mentions:

'' Anek bidesh ghure.......dekha hoynai....chokkhu melia, ghor hote du pa feliya

ekti dhaner shish er opor ekti shishir bindu''....which roughly means....we always look for pleasures outside while we ignore the beauties inside, ones which are near to us....can also become dear to us....

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Artisans lost in the backlane.......



25k for a Bidri Hookah!! The artisans get 5k!!

The makey world of art lovers frequented by socialites sipping vintage wine and discussing the beauty and intricacy of art are the decision makers of such beauty. They are the bread and butter providers for the artisans breaking their backs for the art lovers in high societies.
Noor Alam, lives in the dingy and dark backlane in Bidar. For 8 hours in a day he bends over to concentrate and create the intricate work of Bidri. The room is nothing more than 6ft by 6ft and depends much on daylight coming from a small window right on top. He represents one of many unattainded, unknown creaters of beauty who are not only lost in the barklanes but are also poorly paid in lieu of their mighty creations.
Their fault - being poor, uneducated and non-commercial in nature. They are day-in and day out sold to the art dealers who flaunt there art in high prices. While these so called ''high social beings'' make hay, the artisans create wonders and die in oblivion is some backlane of our many villages.
I guess that's called '' survival of the fittest''!!






Thursday, October 25, 2007

My Mom..........the essay!!!

The heading...doesn't it sound familiar......one of the very few common topics to write essay on during our childhood days and I distinctly remember what I worte - '' My mom is fat and she cooks well''!!!

The journey of motherhood is an amazing give and take relation for both mother and her child - both pass through different phases in their relationship. The formative years are mostly spent on dependency from both sides - love - care while with time it changes to an age old concept - ''generation gap''. The summative years would be completion of the cycle - friendship - love and care.

For me it was living the same life cycle with our own personalization aspects. We also had the growing pangs of ''generation gap'' stage with ideological conflicts. We both took each other as sworn enemies and would often end up in emotional bursts. But amidst all, for us the next level of friendship, love and care happened in an escalated way. There came a time when we would openly discuss love, sex, new exposures in the growing stage and would find a lot of solace in accepting each others theories.

Reminiscing on her 7th death anniversary, all those ups and downs in a mother-child relation one thing stands true to the core - the title ''ma\mom'' might be of just 2-3 letters but it holds enormous power and strength to influence, mould, create, love & care.

My salute to the Almighty ''Mother''.

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Tiger tiger burning bright.............

Tables are turned.............we the so called superior human species find ourselves in the mercy of all powerful Nature. Unknown territory, suspense at every corner, mere existence is on luck is what is in store for us when we visit the forest - Forest in real terms not the one which we live in - urban jungle.

The density, unknown sounds punctuated with numbness overpowers the mind and soul and for the first time you bow down to the enormous power of mother nature engulfing you to the last drop of your blood.

Every minute builds up to a suspense thriller when nature tries out your patience and luck with sudden glimpses of the beauties in the form of birds, deers, bisons, sambhars, bear until you come acroos the mighty power of nature embodied in one form - the Tiger. The eyes stare at you taking in all the candid shots much before you take out your camera for one click. One feels helpless as a child in front of the Mighty but the kind of respect and aura it throws, you are bound to feel a change in your superior status.

As rightfully William Blake puts:


TIGER, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?


In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?


And what shoulder and what art
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand and what dread feet?


What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?


When the stars threw down their spears,
And water'd heaven with their tears,
Did He smile His work to see?
Did He who made the lamb make thee?


Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

So what are we mere puny humans in front of the Almighty nature - are we superiors only because we can throw a bullet or burn the beauty around?

Friday, May 25, 2007

Marketing Indian Culture........for Navin.....

Quite a paradox - the two words.......marketing and culture.

Marketing is all about numbers and money while culture is a feeling and sense. So how does these two get married? Simple, its all about made for each other concept i.e although they are conceptually poles apart but one is dependant on the other. It is the tinkling of the coins which can keep the culture concept up and running.

The richness of Indian culture dates back to the begining of civiliazation and have been largely influenced by different kingdoms from inside and outside. It encompasses not only classical, folk, music, sounds, theatre, street plays, puppetry, poetry, literature but also the traditional customs of respecting elders, touching their feet, giving the right dose of cultural teachings to children and also making them aware and proud of our heritage and roots.

Marketing in its crude form has always been there from dawn of civiliazation. Hawking, ballads on roads, wandering monks chanting were few forms of marketing our culture. Presntly it has taken its formal shape with organisations dedicated to marketing are taking it up as endevours to market Indian Culture within and abroad. There are side effects for all efforts taken - for this it would be positive and negative. Positive would be it is reaching to greater mass of people and giving impetus to new people to pursue but the negative would be that it to some extent in some spheres becoming too commercialized in an endevour to reach the masses. It is loosing the gravity and depth and becoming more like a fashion statement.

The balance of the two is too delicate and I repeat a paradox weighing the consequences.

The point is can the egg survive without the chicken and vice versa?

Friday, May 11, 2007

Twinkle...twinkle...little stars................


The world of Alice in Wonder land....that is the world we live in under the umbrella of our guardians till we step out in the harsh crude world of our own.


All the small pleasures of life - comic books, radio, fighting over pencils, home works, playing 'ice-pice', riding merry-go-rounds, yearning for all the expensive toys and candies over the counter and howling for not getting them are some of the most beautiful experiences we can ever enjoy.


In our teens, looking at boys with coy, going to restaurants with pocket full of pennies, enjoying bus rides to school, getting wet and dirty in the rain, fighting out over a game of cricket with the elders, the first love letters in flowery letter writing pads, the chocolates and posters as gifts.


The unhindered world of Alice. No streaks of financial worries, career pressure, status race, serious fights for power and money - the simple world of............twinkle....twinkle little stars.

Saturday, April 21, 2007

8 May! World Women's Day - farce or a neccessity?

Why do we need a women's day in the first place? And if we really need to celebrate a day seperately like environment day, water day, disability day, then why do we clamour for equality?

Women's rights for equality, respect that are written down, documented and the ones which claim to give us freedom from atrocities of dowry deaths, marital rapes, rapes,beatings etc...etc..etc are all done by men who are already guilty of some sort of brutality towards women in their lifetime.

Women should rather Arise and Awake to such atrocities by their own strength of mind. Rather than clamouring for rights, one should claim them. Self-respect can only be earned by own strength of character and not by celebrating Women's Day. The traditional notions of physical weakness, financial dependancies can always be overcomed with zeal and effort.

Stop begging for rights! Make them and establish them because we should not forget that we are the creators and the image of 'Shakti' or power.

Friday, March 23, 2007

Marital relationship.............the secret???

A big enigma - things going wrong with romance with just one signature of registration of marriage.

Scenario before the signature - roses, long walks, long talks on the phone, yearning for each other................

Scenario after the signature - seperate ways - one hooked to the TV while the other suddenly too concerned about cleaning and household work, only conversion revolves round the house and kids, husbands enjoying freedom when wives go for holidays at thier parents place.

Is it because the signature settles the insecurity of the relationship or is it that once you own the 'most wanted' you get over it and it lies unwanted in one corner or is it that once you stay together both get exposed to the gorry details of each other and the disillusionment happens quickly?

With long standing relationship it is always a joint process of growing and changing and those who cant keep pace with each other in this ever evolving process gets lost in the whole relationship.

So how do you maintain the consistency? There is a beautiful thought on that - there are three stages in a relationship - first is the constant tassel to change each other; the second stage is when you get weary of the tassel and settle down by accepting each other as you are and the second invariably leads to the third which is a peaceful harmony of companionship.

The best time tested formula of success would be to become best of freinds from the very first sight. No inhibitions, no secrecy, no artficaility, equal respect and companionship.

No illusions, so no disillusionments. As the fairy tales would declare -

Married happily ever after.........................

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Painting - a different platform?


ART
Is it an artisit's reflection of his surroundings, or is it a reflection of his mental model, or is it done keeping in mind the commercial aspect? Too many questions, an Enigma since each artisit has his or her version of answering to these questions.

Through centuries starting from cave paintings which were simple rendition of objects from surrounding to impressionist art to modern or as some prefer to call it 'abstract art'. What makes art go through its phases? What has led to the change in forms starting from cave paintings although if we look from the perspective of reflection of surroundings then the only thing that has changed is the artificial contour i.e the buildings, the roads while mother nature remains the same?

There are schools of art - the 'grammar' as they would call it - but does art or expression of your mind truly have any grammar? Are people moving to and fro in the grammar, real artists? I guess impressionism was a great breakthrough from the grammar of art - a true expression of your mind - going beyound the lines and giving life, motion within boundary of a canvas or medium.

What is abstract art? Is it anything and everything which is not understood - the cognitive strain on viewers mind on deciphering the artists thought is called modern art or abstract art? Even the belive by artists to prove to one and all that they belong to some other hemisphere - isn't art for everyone? Can't we call the cobbler, the house painter or even the rickshaw-puller artisits in their own forms? They all have creativity in their life and work, even the mother who brings up her child - they all create their own ways and methods which affects their surroundings in a small or big way.

I feel the most poignant truth is that there is no line or seperate breed called artists. Accordingly art should be grouped not as per the lines on the paper or medium but way beyond that - as per life itself where it gives a platform to one and all to express his or her mind . And not to forget the most successful artist in the world - Mother Earth herself.

All the world's a stage and everyone are artists in their own ways!!

Friday, January 12, 2007

Too long in city Pent! Kon - asheem..............

Living in a concrete jungle for too long kills all the five senses - the scents of nature, the hearing sense of chirping birds, the feel of freshness, the blindness to green as a color..................

To somewhat revive the senses, one needs to fly away from the suffocation of a city and loose himself in nature..........surrender to the most overpowering Power.........

We rightfully did the same to a pristine place called Konaseema - it is at the heart of Godavari delta - world's densest population of coconut trees.

A house boat cruise on the river - taking-in natures wonderful gifts - pure air, chirping birds, the color green. It was a peaceful surrender to the mightiest.................. sit back and relax while she takes over all your worries, tensions, complications and nurtures you with peace and sanctity. A difficult from of expression in simple human language - need to feel it, fill it and shut yourself.

The most successful form of meditation to feel and be part of the almighty.