Seattle, Are You Ready?

“Seattle, are you ready?” is a question Mr. Palash Sen, the lead singer of the band Euphoria, asked all evening long. Ready for what, Mr. Sen? And if we are not ready yet, then what state were we in when you asked the same question three songs back? Aah, well. Such was the nature of the concert, entertaining and in part, mystifying. The venue was King Cat theater in Seattle, and I was positioned in an aisle seat all by myself in the balcony section. With a two year old, you either have the option of hiring a baby-sitter, a practice we are not yet bought into, or taking turns to either the same movie or picking entertainment events suited more to one person. The third option, which would involve taking the kid to the concert, is a no-go. The music can almost make you deaf, and if Aarush wants to avoid listening to us, I am not going to give him a handy excuse. He is more likely to end up attending classical concerts first, perhaps someone with an extended name like Madurai Thirumalai Nambi Seshagopalan. The only way he is getting out is he pronounces the name right, to our satisfaction.

However, I digress. Euphoria’s strength has been their ability to do Hindi Rock well, if there is such a genre. Their songs are tinged with folk tunes and their lyrics are easy on the ear. No wonder, the crowd was able to sing along their hit songs. Which brings me to the mystical part of the evening. Where exactly were the Euphoria songs? Yes, they did their usual hits from Dhoom Pichak to Mehfuz, which I really liked, but a large part of their show was peppered with Hindi film numbers and other oddities ranging from ‘Dhagala laagli kala’ to ‘Another brick in the wall’. I would have imagined that they would not need to resort to these options if their repertoire was strong enough. Then maybe, it isn’t.

I guess the restorative point of the concert was the main man himself. I did not have much expectations from Palash Sen as a performer (you have to know that I HAVE seen Filhaal), but he was very good on stage. His energy levels through the concert, his interactions with the crowd, his on stage rock star moves (quite manufactured) and his unfailing ability to ask us if we are ready carried the concert. I don’t think anyone is under any misconceptions about his ability as a singer. He isn’t Sonu Nigam, but he doesn’t need to be. His insistence that everyone needs to be on the dance floor was irritating though. I had expensive tickets specifically because the cheaper tickets had dance on the title. Its alright. I maybe of the arthritic crowd, as Mr. Sen mentioned, but that didn't stop me from stomping my feet and clapping when it appealed to me. I found Mr. Sen's ability to jump up and down and still continue singing without a hiccup fairly impressive. The jumping was a criticial tool he used to engage the crowd. It would also have helped to overcome the limitations of the sound system, where the mixing and the volume left a lot to be desired.

Lastly though, mention must be made about the volunteers from AID who put this together. Or for that matter, volunteers of CRY or Ekal or other NGOs whose chapters I have interacted with. Planning this kind of event takes a lot of time and effort, and for the most part, the people who are doing this are salaried folks who have a family to attend to. You have to be fairly passionate about your charity to invest the kind of time that goes into it. If by chance, an AID volunteer reads this, pat yourself on the back for today’s work.

Terrific Twos

My son is fast approaching his second birthday. The one whose lifting of his little finger seemed like the high point of activity when he was born, is a tall lean force of nature who is incessant through the day and restive through the night. The first words that come out of his mouth every morning give great insight into what he was dreaming about. Like the pants that always seem to be getting shorter and a vocabulary that always seems to be extending, the past two years have been the perfect metaphor for change being constant. Here’s an attempt to arrest those thoughts and capture them.

Terrible twos?
I had not heard the expression terrible twos before children started appearing left, right and center in my social circle. My first instinct was that it must refer to the second year of the child’s existence. That surely must be a banshee that gets banished when the child blows the candles on his second birthday. Turns out I was a little off. Maybe by a year. Surely then, my child must be precocious, even if relates to being his own man at a little under two. If the terrible (oops, terrific) twos aren’t meant to end by the time they are two, there are contingencies that I must conjure up for the upcoming year.

Repetition
Ever heard the same song 25 times in a row or gone up and down the elevators 30 times and not complain about it? Well, then you must be a parent. You may love your spouse to death, but there is little chance you will put ‘Re mama re mama re’ on a loop and listen to it over and over again for their pleasure. What’s more, you’ll smile each time the child smiles at a particular phrase that he or she finds funny or beam at their attempt to sing along, as the seven notes ease their way out of the little bodies in a mellifluous voice.

Language
This is a tricky one. You see, I am a Gujarati. My wife is Tamilian. We speak English and Hindi at home, but my son speaks American. In the midst of this Tower of Babel comes the thorny and tricky question of how and what languages to teach. Do you confuse the living daylights out of the child by teaching him what “spectacles“ are called in four different languages or do you secretly rejoice at the fact that he has caught on to words like “khallas”? Do you go against your intuition and trust the research that says that it is ok to expose children to multiple languages at a young age or do you trust that somewhere in those billion synapses, the right connections are being formed? In the midst of all this, as the words come by – first in a trickle and then in a rush, you will be filled with so much enjoyment at the ease of communication that comes with it. The sight of your child beaming with joy because he just uttered a new word and that you understood it is priceless. An additional thing is that their mis-pronounciations are way cooler than the correct words. I never want to say hippopotamus now that I have heard my son say “popopus” or “baak” for bike. Eight hours of the day at the daycare also ensure the emergence of an American accent; the one dreaded by the grandmothers!

Little man
Did I say I have a two year old child? I must have forgotten to mention that he is a little man. One capable of looking you in the eye with defiance and saying “No”. One growing into a phase where he realizes that he is an individual by himself; not attached to his parents. Independence comes with a streak of rebellion, a bag of opinions, and the will to test out what his limits are. Oh I get it, that’s why they say toddlers are hard to manage. It is also fascinating to see them want to do everything that others are doing. The new-found confidence in the use of their faculties makes them want to ride a car and jump from the sofa and generally do six things out of ten that the parents don’t want them to. If you thought David versus Goliath was a fable, come to my house. I should also add that David has more tricks up his sleeve, including such “astras” as tantrums, tears, puppy eyes and a sweet imploring voice. Goliath needs to be very resolute to survive the attack.

Fresh Perspective
I had heard a botanist once say that his best time in the trade was when he was one; where he would be on his all fours in the lawn, noticing everything from the minutest of leaves to the giant trees. The infinite curiosity rubs onto the parents. You start looking at world through fresh eyes - notice everything they notice. I should also note that the kids also notice everything you do, so watch out.

Teaching life's lessons
You suddenly have a captive audience and you are expected to deliver – trigger their curiosity, teach them good habits, inculcate good values. You are handed life’s biggest job without a driving license. You suddenly discover you have something to offer, and also realize that you don't have everything to offer either. Surely your child is a progidy, but you are not tapping into their potential. There is so much you may not be doing right and there is a chance that your child will turn out right despite you, not because of you.

The chauffer and the cleaner
This will be your job for life, especially if you are a parent in the US with no support system. As early as six months, the cycle of classes, birthday parties etc. starts. The car is your means to an end and good music a life saver. Life goes on a timetable like never before, but you’ll thank all the classes you are putting your child into, because you really need to find ways to redirect their boundless energies. It is also a projection of one’s inabilities – in my case, my inability to swim, which prompts the parents to make sure their children start early enough.

Parents of toddlers
I have to have a section on the parents of toddlers (actually, parents of young kids in general), a difficult breed to which I belong. Ever seen a conversation between two sets of parents? It is like watching a tennis match. Each statement is accompanied by a counter statement from the other parent. If one comments on their son’s sleeping habit, the other follows up with what’s going on with their daughter’s nighttime activity. It is a cross between insecurity and pride about kids that gets them to behave that way. Parents really have it both ways: they love the kid and nobelize the responsibility. They complain about not having the freedom and feel guilt when they do take it up. They are the sole entities that they child looks upto and yet they need to figure a way for the child to look and learn from beyond. Another role that these parents have to play is of translators. Children are cute, but they sure aren’t easy to understand when they are trying to learn new words. Without the parents translating, that “wolly” stands for Diwali, you are not getting anywhere. However, their biggest task is accepting compliments on the cuteness of their little one. What a hard job it is!

Tainted

And then we proved ourselves
Better than our hearts
Fie upon them!
Erecting walls
To keep the good away from the bad

We mixed them together
And eked out
A civil society
And enough unrest
To engage us
Millenium after millenium

Transference

She stroked the photograph
Lying in her bed
Her love, transmitted
Through a two-dimensional surface
To a weary cheek in another continent

The Alcoholic's World

Who needs a sun
When you have
A bottle as a consort

It is night when she empties
And day when she greets
With luscious lips
And a full body

Emotional Aachaar

Where there is a television and a remote control in an Indian household, there is an audience transfixed on the great stories of our time – the Hindi television serials. My mother is no different, and with her visiting us at our American cable infested household, we were brought onboard to the mystical land too. From 8.30 in the night to 10.30 in the night for the past two months, Suhana and Naitik, Akshara and Shakti, Durjan Singh and Pratigya have flooded through the pixels of my television. I have the pairings wrong, but such is the overarching and confusing impact of these melodramas (which are anything but mellow), that there is no defense. This concept is not alien to me. I had explored this landscape a few years back when I suggested that Ekta Kapoor be made president. Some things have remained the same and some have changed in the past five years. Here’s my take on it.

Serial Titles
It has become an almost golden rule that a serial be named after a Hindi film song. ‘Tere Liye’, ‘Yeh Rishta Kya Kehlata Hai’, ‘Sasooral Genda Phool’ are examples. My simple question for those who bother to compose new songs as the title songs for these serials: Why?

Impoverished Nation?
You will never get the impression if you look at the women in the serial. They go to sleep dressed like they are going to a wedding. They show up in a wedding like they are royals about to donate alms to the poor. Who would have thought that TV actresses could lead the way in setting fashion trends?

Dropping eves
No serial would progress if someone was not eavesdropping. Almost every important discovery in every serial is made by the simple act of someone hiding behind the door and hearing a conversation between two people who clearly don’t know the concept of closed doors.

Mahila Mukti ya Mahila Shoshan
The more progressive India gets, the more regressive the serials get. In one of the serials (Pratigya), there is a message that runs at the bottom stating that the serial makers oppose any and all forms of atrocities against women. If you take your eyes off that and look up, you’ll see the women in the serial being treated as dirt.

Gujarati is the new Punjabi
As the default family in Hindi movies are Punjabis, so the default family in television serial is Gujarati. The serials are set in Baroda and Ahmedabad and characters with the surnames Shah and Patels abound. Oh, and there are the characters who have a “sa” tagged at the end as a mark of respect. I wish at least one character was named Hansa. Imagine “Hansasa”. Africans would have been proud.

Special Effects
No more camera panning through shots from the left, top, bottom, and right everytime a character has realized that his wife is cheating on him. The cameraman must be as thankful as the audience is, as the directors have decided that the only special effect worth continuing with is slow motion. I can see the point of that. Less work for the cameraman and more screen time consumed while doing nothing

Disappear, Reappear and Duplicates
The theme of people disappearing and reappearing is popular. Those presumed dead show up alive as someone else. There are those presumed alive who are actually duplicates of those now dead. A lot of energy is spent in trying to figure out if you are who you claim you are. The methods vary from a sophisticated DNA test to a crude questioning of old facts. Can’t accuse them of having a lack of drama.

Employment Discharge
The women never seem to work outside the house, the men disappear for hours but don’t seem to work much either. The palaces they live in seem to be sustained on a mixture of huge inheritance and oxygen. If a lawyer, as one of the characters is, can live in a house the size of the Aga Khan Palace, then he clearly must be the best of his kind.

My parents will head back to India soon and I will be left with the hard decision of whether to continue or not to continue with the Indian channels. Is a serial called ‘Kya Karen, Kya Na Karen’ being made somewhere?

Bulldozer

I watch
The slaughter of the moments
As the hand mercilessly
Ticks over
With unfailing regularity
Running over the hapless
Lines on the clock.
Barely will they rise
Before they get eclipsed again

Apotheosis

Did we ever give our Gods a choice?
Or were they elevated by force,
Once we removed
the deadweight of human frailty?

The Completion Conundrum

Off all the pits and falls
One endures
It is the snake at 98
that hits you the hardest

Miranda’s Right

The car screeched to a halt
Five feet too far
For the comfort of the law

The cop sauntered by
Aviator sunglasses firmly in place
Hands gently caressing the butt of a gun

"License and registration, Ma’am"
The polite inquiry shot through
The tainted windows of the old car

Miranda kept her gaze down firmly
Hoping to hide the betrayal of her pigments
Writ on her dark-brown, weathered, lonely face

It must be the distortions caused by the Phoenix heat
That sins multiply for the chosen few
And a right goes only thus far

Aur Yeh Lagaa Sixer!

The title notwithstanding, this is neither a post about cricket nor is it about pencils. It has been six years since I started this blog. I have been posting a celebratory note practically every year for the past two-three years on this day; mostly because it is a pleasant surprise. It is like a miracle - you might believe in them, but don't really expect one to happen for you.

This is also the chance I take to thank those who have stuck with me on the journey. Lately, the number is down to a trickle, sufficient to ensure that this isn't a monologue. Thank you for your support, feedback and criticism. I have also heard rumours of a great many silent readers visiting this space. If you are reading this, please accept a note of acknowledgment. It would be good to hear from you on occasion.

There is still wind in the sails. Onwards then!

Death By Batting

You don’t know what a sigh of relief is unless you have had one now that you have realized that the ongoing test match between India and Sri Lanka just ended. In five days of relentless onslaught by batsmen, only 17 wickets fell. Not a single session was dominated by the bowling side, though there was only a small point in the match where Sri Lanka could have gotten through to India, but then Tendulkar the immaculate accumulator stepped up to the plate. Cricinfo ran a good stats article today about the batting averages of Asian batsmen within and outside Asia. Not surprisingly, only Tendulkar has an average of 50 both inside and outside the sub-continent. Players like Jayawardene confirm their stature as subcontinental batting bullies. Jayawardene in a classic case. In this test match, he broke Don Bradman’s record for most number of centuries in a particular location. This was his 10th or 11th century at the SSC. Ask yourself: how valuable is this record if this is the regular fashion in which this pitch plays? In fact, Sri Lanka has a simple plan – win the toss, rack up a big score, and hope the score induces enough pressure that the team chasing cracks for them to win. This happened in the first test match, where Malinga and Murali (with Malinga in particular) exerted the pressure and got through to India. What is remarkable is that Sri Lanka seems to win the tosses with regularly frequency! Maybe Dhoni should skip batting practice and do some practice to ensure he calls the toss right :)

This match brought back memories of test matches in Sri Lanka in the early 90s. Sri Lanka consciously prepared home tracks with the objective of ‘not losing’. Winning would have been a bonus. Batsmen racked up huge scores at that time (and of course, India was on the receiving end on several occasions), including the highest test score of all time. But it made for terrible test cricket, with no hope of a result in sight. Sub-continental pitches are notorious for being batsmen-oriented, but statistics highlight the attitude of teams in play. Sri Lanka and matches played in Sri Lanka have the highest percentage in terms of number of draws for matches played.

Harsha Bhogle’s article today talks about how curators are burying bowlers with these kind of pitches. That is spot on. I’d like to add that they are burying the spectators and the game too. Test cricket has enough going for it to thrive, but you need to get the bowlers back in the equation. The ongoing matches in England are a case in point. Australia is due in India in October for two test matches. The Ashes hype aside, this particular match-up has been consistently produced good cricket for a few years now. I hope the pitches for these matches are sporting enough to have a chance for a result. That’s the least that can be done. And oh, no more India-Sri Lanka matches please!

Migrated Decade

It has been ten years to the day since I made my move from the Orient to the Occident. The day I would board my first international flight with one of my closest friends as we headed to the land of Uncle Sam under the guise of getting higher education. The day I would acquire my FOB (Fresh off the boat) status. (It never made sense to me, unless boat is a metaphorical representation for an airplane.) The day I would journey in the footsteps of other immigrants who left a known world to pursue an unknown dream. Leaving behind family and friends (yes, yes, a girlfriend too), my city, my country, my identity in pursuit of an unknown adventure, with a nebulous idea of what lay ahead. Ten years is perhaps a short time to call the adventure complete. Ten years is perhaps a long enough time to judge how the adventure is going.

From finishing my studies that I thought would be hard to finding a job that I thought would be easy, from getting married to the aforementioned girlfriend to being a father of a lovely little boy, from possessing unbridled curiosity to maturing – in age, looks and hopefully wisdom too, from sharing a love-hate relationship with my country to sharing a love-hate relationship with this country, from vacillating between the need to go back to the need to stay here, from the successful exploration of one’s abilities to the lonesome discovery of one’s inadequacies, from pursuing old passions to exploring new ones, from slowly shying away from people I was close to only to discover some others that I might never part away from, from finding a comfort point in life only to determine that you can never really get comfortable, the last decade has been a lifetime within a lifetime.

The tale of immigrants is so similar to others and in its minutiae, so different as well. We fly out of our homes with two bags of belongings, and two decades of experiences. The destiny we shape is often uncontrollable even though we may think we are our own masters, but we forge a new sense of identity each day of our passing lives in a foreign land. Perhaps the new identity entails always treating yourself as a displaced entity in a foreign world, or perhaps it sees itself as expanding our horizons in a global village. Decade after decade goes, and just like the start of the previous one, I wouldn’t hazard an accurate guess on how the next one will go. For the moment though, I will celebrate ten years gone by, a life not derailed, an adventure developing as we speak, a story not yet complete.

Slumber

The television and the dragonfly
Joust through the night
The dragonfly: with a constant hum
The television: with constant light

The arbitrator sat through all of this
Eyelids closed, breath heavy
As the remote lay in his right hand
With a finger on ‘Mute’

Beacon of Liberty

Captured this photograph from the Staten Island Ferry last weekend. Got lucky with the time of the evening. I thought I might share this here since it has been a while since I have uploaded any pictures.

Tourist

I was in New York City in the recent past. Walking on foot like a dutiful tourist, to places I was told are the heart of the place. I walked around looking not at the sights with which I was already familiar. I walked around looking at the hands and feet and visages inhabiting the place. Walking around in seemingly Brownian motion, each one of those pairs of hands and feet were guided by a pair of eyes to a fixed location. It struck me then that I like cities with histories. Not recent settlements like Seattle, which are a century old, but places where generations have trodden and made the place their own. A city is a new shiny firmament built on ruins. A city is a ruin waiting to give way to a new path. The rubble is lost, but the myths are never buried. They are carried through across generations. The stones and pathways and the buildings each guide its latest inhabitant to live within this newly created environment. Without the knowledge of its denizens, it creeps into their language and lifestyle and accidents and successes and instills a sense of pride as a long lasting scar. I did not see New York City the way the brochures intended me to. I saw it spread thin and luminous and lonely, on those faces, carried by a pair of hands and feet to their destinations.

Stasis

The tap was dripping water with the comprehension of one who possesses a sense of rhythm. The laya was vilambit, Arun would have said. Arun knew all about rhythms. Arun knew a lot about everything. Arun would have surely said that, and much more. But Arun hadn’t said anything for the past year, thought Vishruti, sitting crouched at the other end of the bathtub, watching the tap release water with unerring accuracy. Tulips smiled at her, mockingly, through the photo frame across the wall. Her neatly stacked array of shampoos, promising her vibrant, bouncy, radiant hair teased her from their vantage point on the edge of the bathtub. Her hair, tousled, tangled, fell over her shoulder and covered her right hand. Her eyes, swollen, empty, soulless, stared into the vast emptiness in front of her. The answering machine was pretending to be her ears, taking in the pleas of her parents to call back, trying their perfunctory daily call in the hope that she would pick it up. They were worried, especially today. A year since Arun’s death. A year since a promise of a lifetime together was broken. All that was left behind was a life derailed, and a woman, trapped in the amber of an unfulfilled pledge. “Is there such a thing as too much love?”, she wondered, catching a glimpse of herself as she lowered the shiny new blade to her wrist.

Father's Day

I saw you tiptoeing around the house with a glint in your eye. Was it for the mischief you have done or intend to do? I would never know. I saw the edges of your lips curl into a satisfying smile. Was it from something that made you happy or some joy you are going to bring about? I could never guess. To decipher it would require me to make an objective observation. From the moment you opened your eyes to every occasion you call me “Pappa” in those dulcet tones, you have robbed me of any objectivity I could possess.

Here I am: your old man. Brown-eyed, fair-skinned, receding hair, bespectacled, chastened.
Here you are: my son. Brown-eyed, fair-skinned, silky hair, wobbly, animated.

We meet in the middle: two worlds residing under the same roof, two lives colliding and intertwining in a curious mix of head and heart, genes and emotions, love and admiration.

You are an eighteen month young boy. Young enough to wear your emotions on your sleeve, with not a deception in sight, not a shred of malice, not a bias in place. Young enough to laugh with your mouth wide open with the sparkle of teeth matching the unbounded sounds of rapturous merriment. Young enough to dance with unbridled joy at a song, admiring the strains of melody as they fill the space around you.

You have grown eighteen months old now. Old enough to look straight into my eyes and speak a thousand words without a sound. Old enough to invent new games and draft people into playing them. Old enough to have a curiosity that questions the humdrum existence of everyone and everything. Old enough to let me have the pleasure of teaching you something. Everything.

I have grown eighteen months wiser now. Wise enough to wake up each morning with the knowledge that the best lessons in life come with responsibility. Wise enough to know that a study in flailing arms can teach you all about surviving. Wise enough to laugh and worry to my heart’s content about the smallest and biggest things related to you.

I have grown several years younger too. Young enough to learn a new language that you put together. Young enough to let go, even for moments, of my biases and inhibitions. Young enough to be a boy, even if the slight traces of grey in my hair dictate otherwise. Young enough to know what it feels like to be a child. Young enough, to learn.

So, there we are; parent and child, guide and student, brothers in arms, rogues in merriment, father and son. The other day, I saw you trying to slide your foot into my shoe. I am sure you weren’t looking for symbolism like your old man was. I am sure you weren’t trying to bridge the gap between our worlds, trying to see what it would be like to be me.

I am sure you didn’t see me playing with your shoes either. Happy Father’s Day, my son.

Customer Service

Dear Sir,

We apologize profusely
But the volcano obtusely

Kept throwing up ash
Preventing our mad dash

Your order is on hold
And can’t be foretold

How long it will take
So for your sake

Please refer to this manual
Very descriptive, very visual

Refer to page thirty-nine
“The use of a hammer to break a spine”

Your ordered assassin is running late
But if you absolutely cannot wait

We hope to help you proceed ahead
Anything to make sure your spouse is dead.

Yours sincerely,
Hitmen Inc.

Synopsis

Lived, Loved, Lost, Lived, Loved
Is it your life's story?
A little rearrangement
And it well could be.

Double Negative

She was called a Rose
Once. In Error.

When the note passed
In Chemistry class
Reached the wrong Shruti

She smiled through her braces
Surprisingly unsurprised
And looked over
To thank her admirer

Justice on earth
Manifested itself
As she glanced
Through her heavy set glasses
At the wrong Vinay.

Burn After Reading

Four little flickers were seen in a distance. They were the embers of a dying night. They were like the first sparks of fire that would turn on the cauldron that was the sun. They were four little glimmers suspended in mid-air, forming an arc, as they travelled in a parabolic motion. The flickers weren’t without company. They had owners. The banished gathered around in the dying cold waving those flickers. Was that a sign of protest or a sign of surrender? Were they mourning their loss of right to burn away where they wanted, when they wanted or was that a sign of defiance? The faceless vigilantes were burning their lungs and lighting up the universe. Smoke hung around them with muted admiration. Then, as suddenly as it had started, the congregation came to an end. The lights went out, one after another. Dawn engulfed them, and robbed them of their masks. Heads hung in shame (or thought), a wry grin to boot, and a throaty cough to enunciate, the newspaper men headed back to their truck. The world was going up in flames. At least their fire has been put out.

Imaginarium

Don’t fear me.
I am just a thought;
Common as the wind, the sun, the stars.
Take me in and fly with me.
Through air, through water, through time

Don’t be afraid.
At best, I’ll vanish as if by some sleight of hand
At worst, I’ll consume you
I’ll cover you up in my tight embrace
And leave you; famished, insane, refreshed.
Right on the doorstep
Of new possibilities

Imprints

I like the notion of photographs on film. The days when one would buy a roll of 24 or 36 photographs, depending upon the size of your ambition and the generosity of your pocket. There was none of the cowboy attitude to photography, none of the profligacy in taking pictures, none of the devil-may-care attitude to clicking incessantly. You had to wait for the moment; prime yourself for that exact location and the exact expression that would summarize your visit to the sunset point. You couldn’t afford to blink to the flash, couldn’t afford to let the hair fly in front of your face, couldn’t afford to let passers-by intrude the sanctity of the frame. Each photograph was a precious occasion and it had to be treated honorably. There was then the charm of how many photographs would turn out good. Maybe 21, maybe 23. The day long wait would seem interminable and the suspense would be heightened when picking up the photographs from your neighborhood studio. There was poetic justice, if you had such a bent of heart. What does it mean to have an over-exposed photo? Or a blank? Should I seek metaphors in the results of clumsy technology? There is something to holding an actual print in the hand, and poring over the minutiae on it. Something to lie down on your bed and look at the face of the one you love; which for narcissists could be themselves. There is something to insert the pictures into a big album, and sit with the tome on your lap as your friends and family gather together to reminisce the old times. Yes, the old times. Unlike Dorian Gray, you get old, and the old faithful print gets old with you, torn at the edges with the colors fading away.

Notes From A Graveyard

One wonders if he chose to live his life that way. Selecting brevity over loquaciousness, precision over vagueness, certainty over ambiguity. I wonder if he knew that your life in all its glory will be summarized in a few words written over your dead body. I wonder if he had envisioned his epitaph written over his tombstone. I wonder if he thought that the elegance of the carving on that piece of rock should be matched with the elegance of a few words that would capture his essence. I wonder if he knew that long after he was gone, he would be introduced and summarized to anyone visiting him as a man of few words. I wonder if he had chosen those words: “He lived”.

Marked

She bends the edges of the day to leave it dog-eared. The act of marking a memory. She has no option but to continue the story. Written more quickly than can be read. There is no time to pause and ponder, to make the tock after the tick wait a little longer.

All she has is this book, bent in places, torn in others; that she closes tightly, lest it fall apart. On days when the story inches through the hours, with nary a tragedy or success, she revisits those pages. Bent at the edges. Left dog-eared.

Ab Main Jaan Gaya Hoon

The quiz is done and it was a success! Over 85 teams of two showed up, with kids and other spectators which led to a full auditorium bursting at the seams. Yet, they all stayed for the elims and they all stayed for the finals and loved every moment of it. Generous support through the quiz and generous applause at the end dispels the notion that quizmasters can't be made to feel like rockstars! All the hard work and the long hours were made worth by the feedback and acceptance of the event. Time to kick back, and ... err, get to the taxes, work etc.

I have uploaded the questions used on event day online for your perusal. Please note that the files are fairly high in size.

http://cid-994235a3f10dad2e.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/.Public/Jaane%20Tu%20Ya%20Jaane%20Na%20-%20Bollywood%20Quiz

Enjoy!

Jaane Tu ... Ya Jaane Na!

I have been busy using my spare time to compose and conduct a big, bad Bollywood quiz at the end of this month. I have written before about the quiz club that I am a part off. Our quiz club is collaborating with Ekal Vidyalaya, an NGO, to host this quiz in Seattle on the 27th of March. I get to set the quiz (which is something I love) and the NGO benefits from it (which is something they'll love)

The scale is big and we expect people in the droves, which also means that the it needs time and energy to set up something that will be high on quality and also high on public appeal. The subject however combines two of my passions: quizzing and Hindi music and movies; so the pressure is a welcome challenge.

If you are in and around Seattle, please do attend (and please register on this site before that).

Come support a good cause.

Come support the QuizMaster :)

To India And Back

Back online baby! Between a three week India trip followed by an excruciatingly long and very stressful bout of illness for my one year old, time has flown. After a long time, I am finally sitting down to jot down some thoughts hoping that ‘normalcy’ is here to stay.

I was in India through the new year, taking my son for his first trip as a PIO card holder to the land of his ancestors. The time was spent in Mumbai to a rather comfortable spell of weather and dotted by some religious functions through that period; mostly aimed at getting my son blessed and tonsured and providing all we know with an opportunity to see him at one shot.

Here are some thoughts from the trip:
1. The change I observed in the previous India trip continues unabated. The construction of the metro rail seems to be in overdrive and there’s hardly any road left to drive on. I wonder if in a 100 years, the only way we travel will be layer upon layer upon layer. To add to the mix, the number of cars on the road have increased and larger models are on display now.
2. I employed the cool cab on several occasions and it was completely worth it. I like how they can be summoned so easily, have electronic meters and provide the comfort a long journey requires
3. There is no substitute for the support system that India provides. It became so obvious in the contrast that our return to the US accompanied by my son’s illness provided.
4. There are also distinct advantages in having kids exposed to more people. Everyone brings in a new way to stimulate/engage the kid and when you don’t have to do that duty 24/7 just by the two of you; you also get to spend some quality time with the kid in an energetic fashion.
5. The kid also gets so used to this. My son would occasionally look past me and my wife once we got back to Sammamish to see if someone else would show up.
6. Why people – just stepping out of the house provides super stimulation! How many times was my son taken out of the house for a small walk and he came back wide-eyed and energized. All he may have seen is a dog fight on the road.
7. Indian mosquitoes love American blood. That’s a tough thing to deal with.
8. My son learnt how to say bye-bye with a gentle yet continual wave of the hand. Turns out auto-rickshaw drivers are likely to stop for that action from a year old kid as well!
9. One of the key highlights of the trip was taking my son to Rock Beach – one of MY favorite places. A connection has been established.
10. You realize you have just climbed down the priority order for your parents once they have a grandchild! Boy, what would I give to be the center of attraction like that. Highlight of the trip was seeing the joy that the great-grandparents experienced. The four generation photo with me, my son, my Dad and my grand-dad will be something I will always cherish.
11. An airplane trip to India with an infant is a scary and tiring proposition. Thankfully, it turned out to be much easier than my paranoia had projected. Can’t blame all those tired frustrated kids; being strapped to their seats for such long periods of time.
12. The Bandra-Worli sealink looked good; from a distance. I need to travel on it the next time I go to India.
13. Indian news channels still continue to exhibit a lot of trash. Indian TV has now gone the rural route – when it comes to the theme for television serials.
14. Someone gift me a dictionary to understand the SMS lingo of this generation.
15. You know you haven’t been to India in a while when your loved ones gift you a shirt that would have fit you two years ago, but is significantly smaller now.
16. When men of my age put on weight; the number of compliments you get for ‘looking good’ will surprise you. I must be fitting the image of a ‘prosperous’ Gujju guy heading towards his middle-age.
17. I was very happy to see the focus on fitness in India. Specifically, the coverage for the Mumbai marathon that was going to happen just after my trip. Conversely, there were also a lot of ads for ‘managing’ the weight through medication, surgery etc. (ala USA)
18. Reading the newspaper; the actual newspaper is such a joy. If only I had the time when in Sammamish ….
19. The international airport in Mumbai has been transformed quite well. Very impressed by the quality of the place and the maintenance of it as well.
20. Not so amusing was the custom guy hauling me up because he did not know what a tripod does!
21. You have no idea how much advantage having children can give you when it comes to queues at the airport. We came back from Amsterdam which was just recovering from the Detroit terrorist incident a day before and had huge queues for security check just before boarding. Have a kid? Breeze right through!

That’s that for now. Hopefully, normal services on this blog will resume soon.

Hindi Film Songs: Best of 2009

Here’s the sixth edition of the list of my best Hindi film songs from the year (previous lists: 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008).

Reiterating the disclaimers:
1. The songs aren't listed in any particular order. I have just listed them in the order in which I came across them.
2. I try to listen to each new album that comes out at least once. However, there are simply too many new movies and too many songs to follow. It is possible that some may have been omitted.
3. I am going to attempt to limit the number of songs per movie to three. That does not imply that there aren’t any more on the movie’s list that I like. I follow that rule under most circumstances just to keep the length of the list in check.


Here’s the year end assessment: The quality of music in Hindi film music continues to go downhill, at least in my perspective. Music directors are not creating melodies that I can quote a year down the line. It is almost like songs are made with a few fixed hooks, with no role in really pushing a movie’s story forward, with singers whose names I can’t possibly recall, the need for gayaki in music is going down because beats are the major constituent of a song and a certain ‘voice’ is a substitute for actual training in singing. I could almost count on my fingertips the number of soundtracks that were good this year, and if you take out Rehman, who is consistently producing some really quality music, there are fewer music directors whom could you count on producing great music (the Pritams and the Shankar/Ehsaan/Loys are doing a higher volume with mixed results). And pray tell me if the songs are in Hindi or in Hinglish: why on earth do we need English lyrics in every song? Is it required? Does it enhance the quality of the song? I don't believe so. I think I am a little disillusioned by the results and am wondering if this is the last edition I will produce on this topic. Let’s just leave the decision to next year. I am open to suggestions on songs that you think should be on the list but are missing. I am also open to debates on my choices but as is the nature of blogging, one who owns the blog has the final say. Hope you enjoy it.

I am off to India in a few days so I am publishing the list in advance and if you don’t hear from me on your responses, apologies in advance. I’ll get back to you once I get back.

Song : Aasma Odh Kar
Movie Name: 13 B
Singer : Shankar Mahadevan, Chitra
Music Director : Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy
Lyrics : Neelesh Misra
Why is it on the list? : Surprising to find such a refreshing melody in what is a movie in the horror/thriller genre. Chitra sounds especially sweet rendering this song.


Song : Delhi Destiny
Movie Name : 99
Singer : Raja Hasan
Music Director : Ashu
Lyrics: Vaibhav Modi
Why is it on the list? : Sweet amalgamation of western sounds, Indian alaaps, Raja Hasan’s crisp vocals and good lyrics.


Song : All Izz Well
Movie Name : 3 Idiots
Singer : Sonu Nigam, Shaan, Swanand Kirkire
Music Director : Shantanu Moitra
Lyrics : Swanand Kirkire
Why is it on the list? : The movie is just releasing but I can already see this as a campus anthem. Sample the lyrics that make it thus: 'Confusion hi confusion hai, Solution kuch pata nahin, Solution jo mile toh saala question ka ab pata nahin'


Song : Give Me Some Sunshine
Movie Name : 3 Idiots
Singer : Suraj Jagan, Sharman Joshi
Music Director : Shantanu Moitra
Lyrics : Swanand Kirkire
Why is it on the list? : IITs must be torture chambers, or at least that’s what I make of the rather morose outlook on a life in education. The sentiment for obtaining a simpler childhood is well expressed.


Song : Chiggy Wiggy
Movie Name : Blue
Singer : Kylie Minogue, Sonu Nigam
Music Director : Rehman AR
Lyrics : Abbas Tyrewala
Why is it on the list? : The combination is quite unique though the output could have been better. It is on the list primarily because of the rarity factor.


Song : Rehnuma
Movie Name : Blue
Singer : Shreya Ghoshal, Sonu Nigam
Music Director : Rehman AR
Lyrics : Abbas Tyrewala
Why is it on the list? : There is a little bit of James Bond in this song. One of the better compositions of what was a below par score from Rehman.


Song : Rishte Naate
Movie Name : De Dana Dan
Singer : Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Suzanne D’Mello
Music Director : Pritam Chakraborty
Why is it on the list? : Nice and easy melody for Pritam. Surprising choice of singer: one would have expected someone like Shaan to have rendered this song instead.


Song : Baamulaiza
Movie Name : De Dana Dan
Singer : Domnique Cerejo, Mika Singh, Style Bhai
Music Director : Pritam Chakraborty
Why is it on the list? : It’s the calypso with singers ranging from Mika Singh to Style Bhai (remember him?) Catchy.


Song : Masakali
Movie Name : Delhi 6
Singer : Mohit Chauhan
Music Director : Rahman AR
Lyrics : Prasoon Joshi
Why is it on the list? : Now this is what I call an album. Outstanding music by Rehman and the Prasoon/Rahman team served up some really good melodies. Mohit Chauhan is presented in a very different light by Rahman and he shines. Rehman’s orchestration takes this song to the next level.


Song : Arziyan
Movie Name : Delhi 6
Singer : Javed Ali, Kailash Kher
Music Director : Rahman AR
Lyrics : Prasoon Joshi
Why is it on the list? : Javed Ali and Kailash Kher complement each other very well in this song. Prasoon though shines through the best. ‘Daraarein Daraarein Hai Maathe Pe Maula, Marrammat Muqaddar Ki Kar Do Maula’. Nicely done.


Song : Bhor Bhaye
Movie Name : Delhi 6
Singer : Shreya Ghoshal, Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan
Music Director : Rahman AR
Lyrics : Prasoon Joshi
Why is it on the list? : What an outstanding achievement this. A bandish composed in Gujri Todi, the overlaying of the recording of Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan with Shreya’s recital is quite subtly done. Shreya did very well here.


Song : Emosanal Attyachaar (Brass Band Version)
Movie Name : Dev D
Singer : Bony Chakravarthy
Music Director : Amit Trivedi
Lyrics : Amitabh Bhattacharya
Why is it on the list? : Here’s another good album for this year. In terms of taking the story forward, only a few of them have any role to play, but we are going the way of Hollywood movies now. I am going to pick this song for the use of the brass band, whose unique use makes this song so likeable.


Song : Nayan Tarse
Movie Name : Dev D
Singer : Amit Trivedi
Music Director : Amit Trivedi
Lyrics : Amitabh Bhattacharya
Why is it on the list? : The music director doubles up as the singer for this song, which starts off slowly and becomes a full blown rock track towards the end and you will find yourself nodding your head vigorously to the beats as it progresses.


Song : Yahi Meri Zindagi
Movie Name : Dev D
Singer : Aditi Singh Sharma
Music Director : Amit Trivedi
Lyrics : Amitabh Bhattacharya
Why is it on the list? : Some scope for female singers now. Aditi’s voice and her rendition suit the mood and message of the song really well.


Song : Ishq Hi Rab Hai
Movie Name : Dil Bole Hadippa
Singer : Sonu Nigam, Shreya Ghoshal
Music Director : Pritam Chakraborty
Lyrics : Jaideep Sahni
Why is it on the list? :Dissapointing album from the Yash Raj stable. This one’s sort of ok. Jaideep Sahni’s comparing India to jhappis is interesting.


Song : Aarambh
Movie Name : Gulaal
Singer : Piyush Mishra
Music Director : Piyush Mishra
Lyrics : Piyush Mishra
Why is it on the list? : Piyush Mishra, the actor, was a surprise as a singer/lyricist/music director. His first attempt has been really good. This song is a call to arms and the chaste Hindi is a pleasure to here.


Song : Aisi Sazaa
Movie Name : Gulaal
Singer : Shilpa Rao
Music Director : Piyush Mishra
Lyrics : Piyush Mishra
Why is it on the list? : Shilpa Rao does a commendable job carrying this song with a lot of pathos and very little support from the instruments.


Song : Ranaji
Movie Name : Gulaal
Singer : Rekha Bhardwaj
Music Director : Piyush Mishra
Lyrics : Piyush Mishra
Why is it on the list? : How many Hindi film songs are going to have a reference to Bush, Afghanistan, beer all at one go? Rekha Bharadwaj seems to be enjoying herself in this song.


Song : Bebo
Movie Name : Kambakkht Ishq
Singer : Alisha Chinai
Lyrics: Anvita Dutt Guptan
Music Director: Anu Malik
Why is it on the list? : For old times’ sake. This is the kind of song that the Anu Malik/Alisha Chinai combination spewed with alarming regularity in the 90s.


Song : Lakh Lakh
Movie Name : Kambakkht Ishq
Singer : Neeraj Sridhar
Lyrics: Anvita Dutt Guptan
Music Director: Anu Malik
Why is it on the list? : Foot-tapping number with the right choice of singer.

Song : Pata Hi Na Chala (Sad)
Movie Name : Lottery
Singer : Abhijeet Sawant, Santosh Singh
Music Director : Santosh Singh
Why is it on the list? : Remember Abhijeet Sawant, the first Indian Idol? Apparently he made his movie debut with this movie, which I confess I hadn’t heard off until I came across its music. There are perkier version of this song, but I liked this one.


Song : Sapnon Se Bhare Naina
Movie Name : Luck By Chance
Singer : Shankar Mahadevan
Music Director : Shankar Ehsaan Loy
Lyrics : Javed Akhtar
Why is it on the list? : Farhan Akhtar is by most counts always going to get movies with excellent music in them, and Luck By Chance was no different. The song conveys the urgency and ambition of the protagonist effectively.


Song : Yeh Zindagi Bhi
Movie Name : Luck By Chance
Singer : Loy Mendonsa, Shekhar Ravjiani
Music Director : Shankar Ehsaan Loy
Lyrics : Javed Akhtar
Why is it on the list?: Another par for the course song from the movie


Song : Dil Todnewale
Movie Name : Mere Gharib Nawaz
Singer : Kavita Krishnamurthy
Music Director : Ghulam Ali
Lyrics : Suroor Lucknow
Why is it on the list?: Probably the most obscure movie of 2009 for me. This is an old-style ditty but Kavita makes a rare appearance and impresses. The music is purportedly by Ghulam Ali and I am assuming it is THE Ghulam Ali, but I haven’t confirmed that yet.


Song : Hai Junoon
Movie Name : New York
Singer : Kay Kay
Music Director : Pritam Chakraborty
Lyrics : Sandeep Shrivastava
Why is it on the list?: A refreshing song in an otherwise disappointing soundtrack.

Song : Janeman
Movie Name : Radio
Singer : Himesh Reshammiya, Shreya Ghoshal
Music Director : Himesh Reshammiya
Lyrics : Subrat Sinha
Why is it on the list?: Himesh is back with a vengeance with some good songs on this soundtrack. He holds centerstage in this song with minimal intrusion by instruments. Shreya gives good company to Himesh in the song.


Song : Teri Meri Dosti Ka Aasman
Movie Name : Radio
Singer : Himesh Reshammiya, Shreya Ghoshal
Music Director : Himesh Reshammiya
Lyrics : Subrat Sinha
Why is it on the list?: Beautifully paced song with clean arrangements again. Himesh does a good job as a composer and also with his ‘new’ voice.


Song : Mareeze Mohabbat
Movie Name : Short Kut - The Con Is On
Singer : Hrishikesh Kamerkar, Kirti Sagathia, Nikita Nigam, Shankar Mahadevan
Music Director : Shankar, Ehsaan, Loy
Lyrics : Javed Akhtar
Why is it on the list?: Has the Salaam-E-Ishq hangover but is equally catchy.

Song : Kal Nau Baje
Movie Name : Short Kut - The Con Is On
Singer : Alka Yagnik, Sonu Nigam
Music Director : Shankar, Ehsaan, Loy
Lyrics : Javed Akhtar
Why is it on the list?: I am amused and pleased by the inventive lyrics. Co-ordinating a date over the moon. Nice melody.

Song : Haafiz Khuda
Movie Name : 8 x 10 Tasveer
Singer : Mohit Chauhan, Tulsi Kumar
Music Director : Salim Sulaiman
Lyrics : Irfan Siddiqui
Why is it on the list?: A lot was expected from this movie that turned out to be a complete dud. Mohit Chauhan does a good job with this soft number.

Song : Tu Jaane Na
Movie Name : Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani
Singer : Atif Aslam
Music Director : Pritam Chakraborty
Lyrics: Irshad Kamil
Why is it on the list?: It always amazes me how a singer like Atif manages to be so successful. He is an ordinary singer, but somehow the uniqueness of the voice is all is required in today’s day and age. This song strikes a chord with the listener due to its tune.

Song : Haan Main Jitni Martaba
Movie Name : All The Best
Singer : Kay Kay, Yashita
Music Director : Pritam
Lyrics : Kumaar
Why is it on the list?: Kay Kay infuses a lot of energy in this hummable ditty from Pritam


Song : Khudaya Khair
Movie Name : Billu Barber
Singer : Akriti Kakkar, Monali, Soham
Music Director : Pritam
Lyrics : Gulzar
Why is it on the list?: Soham of the ‘In Dino’ fame makes an appearance here and carries the breezy song well.


Song : Jaoon Kahan
Movie Name : Billu Barber
Singer : Raahat Fateh Ali Khan
Music Director : Pritam
Lyrics : Sayeed Quadri
Why is it on the list?: Rahat has the right voice for this song and Sayeed Quadri does a good job with the lyrics. Very non-Pritam song from Pritam.


Song : Tere Naina
Movie Name : Chandni Chowk To China
Singer : Shankar Mahadevan
Music Director : Shankar Ehsaan Loy
Lyrics : Rajat Arora
Why is it on the list?: The only bright spark in what was a hugely disappointing album.


Song : Zulfaen Khol Khal Ke
Movie Name : Do Knot Disturb
Singer : Sonu Nigam, Anuradha Sriram
Music Director : Nadeem-Shravan
Lyrics : Sameer
Why is it on the list?: Oh Boy! This is a blast from the past. A Govinda movie with music by Nadeem-Shravan and music by Sameer. This is here for nostalgia’s sake.


Song : Ummeed
Movie Name : Firaaq
Singer : Rekha Bharadwaj
Music Director : Rajat Dholakia
Lyrics : Gulzar
Why is it on the list?: Rekha’s voice carries the hopelessness of the situation very well. Gulzar’s lyrics hit the mark.


Song : Tu Hai Rab Mera
Movie Name : Jugaad
Singer : Krishna
Music Director : Sachin Gupta
Lyrics : Rohit Sharma
Why is it on the list?: Wouldn’t have expected anything out of this movie, but I came across this excellent melody. As is the norm, this song has a good Sufi flavor.


Song : Dhan Te Nan
Movie Name : Kaminey
Singer : Sukhwinder Singh, Vishal Dadlani
Music Director : Vishal Bhardwaj
Lyrics: Gulzar
Why is it on the list?: Need I say anything?


Song : Kaminey
Movie Name : Kaminey
Singer : Vishal Bhardwaj
Music Director : Vishal Bhardwaj
Lyrics: Gulzar
Why is it on the list?: This is a triumph for the Vishal-Gulzar duo. How do you take a cuss word like Kaminey and manage to weave a song around it so beautifully?


Song : Pehli Baar Mohabbat
Movie Name : Kaminey
Singer : Mohit Chauhan
Music Director : Vishal Bhardwaj
Lyrics: Gulzar
Why is it on the list?: The first notes on the piano set the theme for the song that instantaneously bring a sense of soothing calm further enhanced by Mohit Chauhan’s voice. Gulzar writes breezy inventive lyrics:’Yaad hain, peepal ke jiske ghane saaye mein. Humne gilahari ke jhoothe mutter khaaye the’


Song : Shukran Allah
Movie Name : Kurbaan
Singer : Sonu Nigam, Shreya Ghoshal
Music Director : Salim-Sulaiman, Salim Merchant
Lyrics : Prasoon Joshi
Why is it on the list?: Salim-Sulaiman are back to their patented style of using Arabic phrases in their songs (they did it ‘Mar Jawaan’ in Fashion) and the result is a nice breezy melody with the Sonu-Shreya pair in full flow


Song : Ali Maula
Movie Name : Kurbaan
Singer : Salim Merchant
Music Director : Salim-Sulaiman
Lyrics : Prasoon Joshi
Why is it on the list?: The second best song of the movie is a situational set-up. Salim takes to the mike himself in rendering this song. Also makes me wonder if ‘Maula’ is the word of the year with so many movies with at least one song with Maula in the title.


Song : Khanabadosh
Movie Name : London Dreams
Singer : Mohan
Music Director : Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy
Lyrics : Prasoon Joshi
Why is it on the list?: Following Rock On, this was a movie based on SEL had to give music for and they did a good job by not attempting to repeat the formula. This is a good foot-tapping number that Ajay Devgan uses to establish himself as a singer in the movie.

Song : Khwab Jo
Movie Name : London Dreams
Singer : Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Shankar Mahadevan
Music Director : Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy
Lyrics : Prasoon Joshi
Why is it on the list?: A soft number, an excellent male duet and a well-written song.

Song : Ajj Din Chadheya
Movie Name : Love Aaj Kal
Singer : Rahat Fateh Ali Khan
Music Director : Pritam Chakraborty
Lyrics : Irshad Kamil
Why is it on the list?: Pritam gets a shot to repeat his success with Imtiaz Ali and Rahat gets a song to suit his voice.

Song : Chor Bazari
Movie Name : Love Aaj Kal
Singer : Neeraj Shridhar, Sunidhi Chauhan
Music Director : Pritam Chakraborty
Lyrics : Irshad Kamil
Why is it on the list?: Song that addresses an interesting situation yet manages to stay a lot of fun.

Song : Ye Dooriyan
Movie Name : Love Aaj Kal
Singer : Mohit Chauhan
Music Director : Pritam Chakraborty
Lyrics : Irshad Kamil
Why is it on the list?: Seems like you can’t get a hit movie score without a song by Mohit Chauhan. Nice ditty.

Song : Khudaya Ve
Movie Name : Luck
Singer : Salim Merchant
Music Director : Salim-Sulaiman
Lyrics : Shabbir Ahmed
Why is it on the list?: Salim Merchant lifts the song with his vocals, which was the one bright spark in an otherwise disappointing album.

Song : Mudhi Mudhi Ittefaq Se
Movie Name : Paa
Singer : Shilpa Rao
Music Director : Ilayaraja
Lyrics : Swanand Kirkire
Why is it on the list?: Ilayaraja rarely composes movies for Hindi film songs but it is always good to hear songs from him. Shilpa Rao does a good job in handling the jumbled lyrics Swanand serves up.

Song : Maahi
Movie Name : Raaz - The Mystery Continues
Singer : Toshi
Music Director : Sharib-Toshi
Lyrics : Sayeed Quadri
Why is it on the list?: Toshi rides on Sayeed’s lyrics and makes an impact with the song. The best composition of the movie.

Song : Dhoop Ke Sikke
Movie Name : Sikandar
Singer : Shankar Mahadevan, Anusha Mani
Music Director : Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy
Lyrics : Prasoon Joshi
Why is it on the list?: Prasoon Joshi gets a chance to write about the innocence of children once again and SEL do a good job doing justice to the lyrics.

Song : Tum Mile (Rock)
Movie Name : Tum Mile
Singer : Shafqat Amanat Ali
Music Director : Pritam
Lyrics : Sayeed Quadri
Why is it on the list?: The rock version of the song gets a shot in the arm with Shafqat Amanat’s vocals.

Song : Iktara
Movie Name : Wake Up Sid
Singer : Kavita Seth
Music Director : Amit Trivedi
Lyrics : Amit Trivedi
Why is it on the list?: Amit Trivedi (of Dev D) is the guest composer for this song which turns out the best song of the movie. Kavita Seth, who has sung few song in Bollywood thus far brings freshness and charm to this song.

Song : Wake Up Sid
Movie Name : Wake Up Sid
Singer : Shankar Mahadevan
Music Director : Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy
Lyrics : Javed Akhtar
Why is it on the list?: I love the way ‘Wake Up Sid’ comes in at the end of the mukhda. All Sids everywhere would be wise to wake up listening to this song.

Song : Bikhri Bikhri
Movie Name : Whats Your Raashee
Singer : Sohail Sen
Music Director : Sohail Sen
Lyrics : Javed Akhtar
Why is it on the list?: There were a lot of expectations from this movie in terms of its music, but I have picked up a couple of songs that I liked. This is one of them.

Song : Jao Na
Movie Name : Whats Your Raashee
Singer : Sohail Sen
Music Director : Sohail Sen
Lyrics : Javed Akhtar
Why is it on the list?: The song uses the guitar very effectively to set the rhythm for the vocals to follow suit and Soham does a good job with it.

Dissent

“You have to stand for something!”,
She yelled;
Hot streaks of aggression
Flitting across her pacifist face.

“You spineless coward!”,
She finished
With all the spite
She could muster

He shifted uncomfortably
Gazed at his shoe-laces
And with his mystical powers
Of cynicism
Made her vanish from his very presence

It’s as if
Ghosts of conscience spoke
To deaf ears of reality

Flash Backwards

I was watching the highlights of the day one of the test match at Brabourne being played between India and Sri Lanka and felt instantly nostalgic. The last time I was in there was in the year 1989 watching Australia play Pakistan in the Nehru Cup. 1989!! Given that there is a twenty year gap between a strong memory I possess and today, I must be growing old. I remember going into the match with my father, with the heightened expectation of seeing my cricketing hero in flesh and blood: Allan Border.

Imran Khan, Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Abdul Qadir formed a formidable bowling line-up for the Pakistanis and it was always going to be an engaging battle. These were the days when one-day scores weren't of the run-a-ball variety seen today. Pakistan went into bat first and scored over 200. Several times, Border ran back to the boundary to chase the ball and I jumped up and down in excitement. Wasim Akram hit a couple of huge sixes towards the end of the innings and I was pretty certain one of them was going to come in and hit me on my head. Thankfully, nothing of that sort happened and I spent the entire lunch excited in the anticipation of the run chase. Turns out the excitement was to end there. Imran Khan bowled exceptionally well and won the match for Pakistan. When the second Australian wicket fell, my heart lept in pride when the section of crowd I was in started chanting "Border, Border". To my rather limited worldview then, it was heartening to know that my favorite cricketer had other fans too. I joined in the chorus to the best that support my lungs could provide. Unfortunately, it was not to be the day I got to watch him rescue Australia. He pittered and pottered around for a while and ultimately got caught in the gully of Imran's bowling. When you don't watch a match from behind the bowler's arm, you lose out on so much of the details. In those days, there were no big screens on the ground and it was only after I got home and saw some highlights in the news on TV that I realised how much prodigious swing Imran had managed to extract from that pitch. It was not a match that had India in it, but I could hardly be called neutral.

There is something about that ritual: of waking up early in the morning to go to a cricket stadium, of a father taking a son along, partaking in the excitement and curiosity of the young one, creating memories that fire up after so many years. It is a rite of passage, a bonding ritual, a tender lesson. Here's to the hope that someday there will be at least one more trip to Brabourne, by a father and son with the last name Pandya. Perhaps twenty years after that, that son might reminisce the occasion as fondly.

Color Me Grey

One man’s nectar is another man’s poison. Water drowns some but is the lifeline for others. The air we breathe slowly saps the life out of us. We live, in a slow march towards death. In life, everything is good and the same is bad. Good can be evil as much as evil can be good. If it’s all about context in which things exist, why is life painted in simplistic tones of black and white? Color me grey. It’s the color of the clouds on the horizon. It’s the harbinger of the night and the limpid pools of refreshment that splash on the thirsty earth. Color me grey. It is wisdom and decay, youth and old age, a little bit of my past and a sampling of my future. Color me grey. Black and white find sanctuary in it.

From My Mind To Yours

Thoughts approximated;
Turn to feeling.
Feelings approximated;
Appear as words.
Words approximated;
Form reading material.
Reading approximated;
Forms subjective opinion.

With such levels of indirection,
Is it a surprise that
so much gets lost in translation?

Where in the world is Parth?

What a liberating feeling to finally have something written in this space! The last month has been a roller-coaster of gargantuan proportions. There were several times I started writing something but then rescinded it at the stage of drafting it. I guess it was an instructive lesson on the creative process. There’s only a certain level of chaos within the boundaries of which I can create something fresh. So, what exactly has Parth been upto the last month? A big part of it has been the travails of the offspring with daycare: the difficulties with adjusting to the daycare followed by an interminable set of illnesses which had him and us in all kinds of stress. The months of October and November are supposed to be the worst for infections and we are bearing the brunt of it. Your child’s firs t major illness is an experience that will stress you out and teach you a lot at the same time. Thankfully, things seem to be settling down a little but right now. In between the stresses, our family (yes, baby included) made it to the finals of AID Antakshari, which was a lot of fun. Then came around the India Quiz, a feature that is becoming a part of the annual quiz calendar in Seattle. As a lead up to the India quiz, a friend and I were running a mini-contest called AQAD (A Question A Day) to stir up interest for the event. That took up a couple of weeks of my time. Ultimately, the event came and it turned out to be an evening to remember. With all due humility, I accept your congratulations! You are talking to the one half of the India Quiz winning team J This was such a sweet comeback after failing to even qualify last year. To top it all, I finally have a trophy for a quizzing event despite all these wins through college and beyond, which were a lot of cash prizes and certificates. Something to show my little boy when he grows up. In the midst of all the craziness was one of the busiest phases at work. Managing work amidst the new constrained schedule involving the predictable nature of daycare and the unpredictable nature of illnesses is a new challenge we are getting used to. That being said, I think the only way this blog will continue is if manage to carve out special time to do this unlike previously where time was more readily available, whether at work, or at home. Will make that attempt. See you around: here, and your blogs too!

The First Nine Months Of Parenting

There is no school that can teach you parenting. You can farm the web for tips and tricks, you can get heeded and unheeded advice from your parents and your peers, or, you can quote this blog post going forward. Being a parent, I am exercising my sense of entitlement and projecting my thoughts on this fairly new role.

There are some caveats to this thought blurb:
1. You will hear me generalize all my statements as if each of these is a truism that applies to all kids. However, I have experience with only one: my own.
2. It is also true that no two kids are the same. Hence, if any of my statements don’t seem accurate, I am still right.

Nine months have passed since the birth of my son. When I compare the 18 months of his existence, the post-interval period seems to be as exciting and as mysterious as it was when he kicked and tossed and turned in his mother’s tummy. These are some thoughts from the time he first let out a cultured cry as a means of introducing himself to the world. Life is brilliant as a parent, but there are a lot of changes too. Here are some reflections, tips and tricks from the first nine months.

· Time becomes an inconsistent entity after the birth of a baby. It flies when you are in the midst of the feeding/cleaning/sleeping cycle. It is this unending cycle of consumption and creation that makes you realize why people regard food as so critical to their existence when they grow up. On the other hand, it slows to an extreme trickle in the middle of the night when the baby decides it’s time to wake up.
· You are engaged in psychological warfare with your kid. It is on, and it is the hardest fight you will be in. One that you are bound to lose. You may not believe it, but the kids are playing you; all the time
· Grandparents are fantabulous. They are a great blessing. They play with the kid through the day and then get equally excited watching his pictures the same night. Three sneezes amount to a cold and imply that the baby will be quarantined and given extra cuddling. They are there for the most important baby hand-off: at 5.30 am. You also see glimpses of how fondly they remember your childhood and visit it in flattering detail at this time.
· Grandparents are also your biggest curse. There is a saying in Gujarati that ‘The interest is always dearer than the principal’. They love this interest, and they spoil it rotten. They make you believe that handling the kid will be easy with work, and you don’t realize the magnitude of it till it hits you square in the face. They will have given the baby a taste of the good life, with undivided attention and extra pampering, which of course is impossible to sustain once they are gone.
· Putting your child in daycare is a tough call. It is the inescapable part of modern day immigrant existence in the United States where both parents are making a living. We try to delay it as much and attempt to rationalize the decision, but what stings ultimately is the loss of control. Handing off your baby to total strangers takes a leap of faith.
· Mothers should be banned from going to dropping off kids at the daycare. It is absolute heartbreak for them, and no logical reasoning can help resolve that. It isn’t that fathers find it a cakewalk, but they find it easier to rationalize.
· You suddenly wonder why you invested in so much furniture for the house, when your child needs all the space he can to crawl around
· Babies will crawl to the exact places you don’t want them to and touch the exact things you want them to avoid
· Parenting peer pressure is far more than any other kind you have faced till date. Everywhere you look, everyone is attempting to be a super-parent, and unlike other contests, this is one you don’t want to be trailing
· You will seek signs that will convince you that your child is a prodigy. I mean, you kid has your genes, and while you may never advance beyond being Joe the Software Plumber, surely your kid would have jumped up the evolutionary ladder!
· Watching a movie in a theater will sound like a dream come true, and you start preferring lunch meetings with friends rather than dinner
· Bachelors only hang out with bachelors and married people do the same with other married folks. That is a true fact. An extension to this dictum: you will seek other parents will babies similar in age to your child.
· The baby industry in this country is mind-boggling. There are a million choices for everything and they will convince you that each one of them is required. No wonder both parents need to earn good money here! Baby clothes cost almost as much as adult clothes do, with the shortest shelf-life possible.
· Someone had once told me that once you are a parent, be prepared to be embarrassed. Truth is, once you are in a restaurant with a baby who will make you stand head over heels to pacify him and feed him, that’s the last thing that will cross your mind. As parents, you will do and say things you never thought you were capable of. If you are not a good entertainer, you have trouble on your hands
· Remember the person who cursed the people with babies in an airplane who just couldn’t keep them quiet? Yes, that was you. Blank your mind to the thought that someone is thinking the same thing about you on this seemingly interminable flight.
· You need to carry your whole house with you when you travel with your baby. And be certain that you would have forgotten something behind
· Wildly reset your expectations on what you can achieve on an outing. It will take three times the amount of time to do the simplest thing.
· You start digging up yours and your spouse’s childhood photos to figure out resemblances. The question ‘whom does he look like?’ will have a new answer every week.
· The most annoying thing that can happen when trying to pacify a howling baby is four other people converging and asking, “What happened? Why is he crying?”
· You will know all the nursery rhymes (Karadi Tales in our case) by heart. In fact, you will be making up new songs as you go.
· Ban the car seat. Seriously. I understand the need for safety, but when a baby treats it like a prison, you have had it.
· You will need extra storage space for the million pictures and videos that you will take. You will document anything and everything and surprisingly enough, maintain that rhythm as time progresses. It also helps if your baby looks like he should be on the cover of a magazine.
· Your heart beams with parental pride so often and so quickly. Your baby gets compliments, he rolls over, he crawls; anything can get that going.
· You will call your spouse Mummy and Daddy as it applies, and being called that makes your heart glow.
· Babies have no sense of morality. No right or wrong. No convoluted biased decision making with an ulterior motive. It is funny how we strive all our lives to achieve the sense of purity we already had when we were so little
· Babies can make softies out of baby-agnostic people. They really do. Treasure them and spend time with them having unbridled fun, while they let you. Remember, as they grow older, they become you :)

Exhaustive and exhausting list? The latter may be true but the former is not. Who knows how different the next set of thoughts may be, if I wait another year to jot them down? Signing off as an exhausted, exhilarated and blessed parent.

Annus Moviebilis

There was Bradman and then there's me. Let's leave that statement while I digress my way to a long story. Statistics appeal to me. They jump out to me from real life. I blame my parents for that. When I was a kid, summer vacations were all about spending time in Surat. One way my parents kept me engaged through train journeys was to keep a tab of how many stations the 'Flying Ranee' would pass by between Andheri and Surat. That was the simplified version of noting the station names down too. So yes, statistics interest me. The number of stairs to get to my office, the number of cars that passed by when I wait to cross like an obedient pedestrian, how many runners did I run past in the half marathon, how many Indians work on my team etc. They are a good way to stave of boredom when it arrives and provide a semblance of structure to chaos. My favorite area though is cricket statistics. Everything comes a distant second. Statsguru in cricinfo is my friend.

The second digression arriveth. I watch a lot of movies. Always have. Not sure when I got to that stage not having had a VCR at home during the oppressive 80s, but movies have my attention. So yes, I watch a lot of movies. My wife knows that and gives me gentle reminders once in a while. But how many movies did I really watch? Was there a difference in perception and reality? There was only one way to find that out. I started a project last year on the 29th of August. This wasn't meant to be a public project, but now that I am at the anniversary, I thought: why not? I listed every movie I saw in the last year. Here's the list in reverse chronological order


Kinsey
Kaminey
Short Kut - The Con is On
Last of the Mohicans
99
New York
Becoming Jane
27 Dresses
Brick Lane
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Burn After Reading
Wall-E
Mamma Mia
Kung Fu Panda
Blue Lagoon
Trainspotting
Month Python and the Holy Grail
Monty Python and the Life of Brian
Gulaal
Little Zizou
Aa Dekhen Zaraa
Eastern Promises
Tropic Thunder
Angels and Demons
39 Steps
Wanted
Crimes and Misdemeanours
Highlander
The Jane Austen Book Club
The Visitor
Strangers on a Train
Walmart: The High Cost Of Low Price
Super Size Me
The Stoneman Murders
Vantage Point
Dil Kabbaddi
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
Persepolis
The Elegy
Dev D
Iron Man
Billu
The Other Boleyn Girl
Victory
Goya's Ghosts
Superbad
Outsourced
Manhattan
Indian Jones and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
The Reader
Sex and the City
Annie Hall
Wolf
Luck by Chance
Hancock
Maharathi
Dasvidaniya
Revolutionary Road
The Last Castle
Rocky IV
Lions for Lambs
Charlie Wilson's War
Sorry Bhai
Jumper
Ghajini
Oye Lucky Lucky Oye
Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi
Into The Blue
Yuvraaj
Ramchand Pakistani
Slumdog Millionaire
Fashion
Dostana
Quantum of Solace
Golmaal Returns
Kidnap
Drona
Welcome to Sajjanpur
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
A Wednesday
Hijack
Naked Gun 2 & 1/2
Mumbai Meri Jaan
Spy Game
Phoonk
Amu
The Notebook
There Will Be Blood
Bachna Ae Haseeno
Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic
Moby Dick
GhostBusters
Love Story 2050
Groundhog Day
Kismet Konnection
The Lives Of Others
The Great Train Robbery
Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na
Sarkar Raj


Not a bad number of movies given the fact that this was the 'most happening' year of my adult existence. I can't imagine what the number would have been in a 'normal' year. Of course, my tolerance for movies is infinitely more than most people, so you may see movies that you might find hard to survive. In an alternate life, I would have been a movie critic, if I had the heart to criticize movies :)

There's the temptation to drill down and analyze this list some more, but I will resist. One thing is certain: this excercise will not be repeated anytime soon. Wouldn't want to compete with myself, would I? :) On second thoughts, if I were to do this excercise for the books I read in a year, it would be a short and sweet excercise.


That leaves the mysterious start to this post: There was Bradman and then there's me. The number of movies on the list: 99!

A Ray Of Light Heads For Earth

Go yonder starlight;
Infinity beckons.
Let mortals remain
Forever trapped
Between gravity and grave

Go yonder starlight;
Don’t pierce the blue sky.
Let us earn first
Our light, Our shadows
Our air, Our breaths

Taking a Michelle

Today has been five years to the dot since I started this space. It has been a slow last year, but I am going to convenience myself by referencing the dictum: quality is better than quantity. In the age of T20, my blog is hitting sixers (a.k.a. posts) with a frequency seen in test matches.

To continue with my cricketing analogy and to explain the title of the post, when bowlers take five wickets in an innings, it is called a five-for (which sounds similar to Pfeiffer, hence the reference to Michelle Pfeiffer). You are welcome :)

Thanks for being part of the journey. Looking forward to the next year!

Solar Eclipse

What dark deeds abound,
As the umbra of the moon’s shadow
Hides the sun away from us?

Are they using the syzygy
To swap our beloved sun?
Pulling a con on us
In broad daylight?

Decadent

Sometime in the midst of this month’s bedlam is wrapped a day that would purportedly mark a significant milestone in my life as well as a whole bunch of others who journeyed the same time as me. I am not sure it really is significant enough, but I am raising the bar on it. In some ways, it is as important as a 30th birthday or a five year anniversary at a job: it means something if you want it to. The event I am talking about: completion of ten years since graduation; since I bade goodbye to my alma mater that mattered: SPCE (Sardar Patel College of Engineering). This post won’t be an exercise in reminiscing. There’s just so much history in the days gone by and the place that was that it would be patently unfair to try and summarize that in a few paragraphs. I see flashes of that era littered around me: photographs on Facebook, the college magazines stocked and piled in my house, a quiz club that is still active since its inception when I was in my second year, friends who are a click away, among others. Those hard evidences abound and most likely still will be there for a while to come. There’s enough ammunition to make one misty-eyed and smile into empty spaces when the mind wanders or a song jogs up old memories.

What makes the ten year anniversary significant is that it serves as a good assessment point: step back, look at yourself, look and appraise the universe around you, look back at what you had wanted and where you are with it. Perhaps you could call it the early-mid-life crisis, or an impending reality check. I suppose its a little less pressure when you weren’t marked for greatness, and I say that in the utmost bitter less manner possible. For us, the bar is a fluctuating line that varies from discovering your potential, to fulfilling it; from realizing that some dreams were out of reach, but others are within the grasp of effort and reality; that there’s joy in reveling and marveling at the success of your peers and satisfaction at realizing that you are making a decent impact too. There’s joy in marveling at how you couldn’t have predicted where you’d be in ten years, who you’d be with, and that your best creation till date will be a study in flailing arms and unintelligible warbles. Ultimately, this is an occasion to smile at the glorious uncertainties of life: if you couldn’t predict accurately how the last ten years were going to be, chances are your image of what happens ten years hence will also be imperfect. So, here’s to the class of 1999: toast to yourself and the joy that is life; You’ve done well!

A Midsummer Night's Arrival

The sun arrives
And refuses to leave
Until the wee hours of the night

The climax is sudden
Like curtains drawn
On a performance gone awry

Light emanates
From the corners of the curtains
A daily eclipse
An hour in the making

Less Face Book, more Face Time!

I understand this blog is fast slipping into oblivion. Not the place I intend it to go, so I am renewing my commitment to post more regularly. They say you need talent to write. I say you need discipline (and for some people, a spell-checker). This first paragraph is to assure the few loyal readers left that I will try and locate the necessary self-persuasion.

We lead extremely distracted lives, especially if you are of my ilk who sit in front of a computer close to ten hours a day. I am not even going to talk about the movie watching and the TV watching I do, but pure and simple, the time that the digital world is consuming. There was always the internet and instant messaging, and it would actually need some extra focus to block everything out and stay on the job. But at least that was limited to the time spent at work after which I would go home and like a good boy, slouch in a couch and watch the idiot box. Nothing precedes the explosion in the past year or two for me. First came the blogs, then youtube, orkut, then came my smartphone and then came Facebook, and there I was, completely submerged into the digital realm.

There’s always something happening on Facebook in someone’s lives, and the deeper you get into this social quicksand, the harder it is to extract yourself. And it doesn’t leave you when you leave it sitting alone locked behind the screen of your crusty computer. There’s the smartphone, that doesn’t let me disconnect from the internet. It is waiting, silently calling me out to log on and check scores on cricinfo, or when an e-mail at work has arrived at 9.34 pm in the night and the glow of the screen draws me into knowing if one of these three important things have conspired: 1. Did I get fired? 2. Have I done anything that will get me fired? 3. Did someone send an invite for a morale event? Then of course, I have to check my yahoo account for the odd chance that some e-mail is waiting for me. Not to overlook my hotmail account, where there ARE e-mails sitting to tell me that something has happened on Facebook that I should know about. It reminds me of an organizer at a dandia event I once went, telling people: ‘please assemble in concentric circles, one inside the other!’

Internet itself has mushroomed. I follow more blogs, I read more news, I see more videos and I hear more music. In essence, an entire day can be spent doing nothing else but keeping ‘in sync’ and it would still be a drop in the ocean. The more I try to optimize what I see and hear, the more there seems to be out there that needs to be seen and heard.

How ironic that the very same tools that should empower and enrich end up distracting me in the process! In an effort to make my life simpler, I have made my life more complex. It requires a special kind of discipline, an almost ascetic bent of mind to resist the temptation to devote endless hours to this smorgasbord of options out there to spend time on. But wait: now I have the perfect excuse to explain my absence from blogging. Everytime I am on a PC or my smartphone, highlights from yesterday’s cricket match to the latest articles on New York Times (and the endless comments) call out to me among other things. There you have it; I finally found someone to blame for my absence from this blog. I’d go on, but I think a friend of mine just updated his status to let everyone know that he is having lunch!

P.S> BTW, I am still not on Twitter. My last stance against digital drowning is still on.

Annual Performance Review

I submit to judgment,
My past year’s follies.
Wrapped in truth,
Blurred in perception.
An eloquent eulogy to efforts past
Neatly organized in bullet points.
Promises I made, promises I kept;
In optimistic synchrony,
Designed to please
The review Gods