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 There were several times I started writing something but then rescinded it at the stage of drafting it.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

T20 is DLF (Destined to Last Forever) Maximum?

These mornings seem a little quieter with the IPL having completed its second version in South Africa. For the past month or so, I had IPL being relayed to my television set at home for my father to enjoy watching some cricket in between breaks of taking care of his grandson, and also at TV monitors across the Microsoft Redmond campus, where one could catch a few glimpses of the game while getting some coffee or heating some food.

I have not been fully convinced by the twenty twenty format, but I am at least fully convinced that it is here to stay, with the IPL 2 also having completed its edition successfully. This year was more interesting than the last because the bowlers actually had a say, unlike the first edition where a bowling machine would have served the very same purpose. At least some batting skill was required, which allowed ‘test players’ like Dravid and Kallis to display their wares and actually make it to the final.

I won’t go into details on how the tournament went. There are reams of paper and online space devoted to it. Some things that stood out for me was the repeat success of an Australian captain, supposed oldies playing so well, the fake IPL player blog providing more entertainment than the cricket at times, the unbearable level of commentary and Tendulkar’s destiny to never succeed as a captain.

With talks of two IPL editions in the same year, a T20 world cup to follow with hardly any breathing space, a champion’s trophy for T20 teams at the end of the year and the seemingly unstoppable momentum of the different cricket boards in adopting T20, the fears for the health of test cricket are well and truly alive. As Rob Steen pointed out correctly in this Cricinfo article what motivation do players have to play for their nation when they could be earning big sums of money for a few good games a year? Andrew Flintoff already screwed himself and the English cricket team ahead of the Ashes by playing for money. How much more time before we have T20 specialists who have no ambition to play either test cricket or any other form of cricket for their country? How much more time before the FTP (Future Tours Program) is abandoned by the ICC? How much longer before test cricket will cease to exist beyond the top four teams or series might have not more than two test matches?

There are two parties involved here who will call the shots: the administrators (a.k.a. Lalit Modi and the ilk) and the players (including Bravo and Flintoff with altered priorities) in deciding the direction cricket will take in the future. Administrators can focus on preparing dead pitches to ensure no one is interested in test cricket, and players can keep choosing T20 tournaments over playing in a bilateral test series. Aiding and abetting are the consumers thirsty for instant gratification, the curse of our generation. The dwindling minority with people like me will fume and fret and blog about it and in another decade resort to watching old recordings of Tendulkar’s 155 not out against Australia in Chennai or Warne’s ball of the century. C’est la vie.

And Then There Was Light

Rays of light
Break through the cloud.
Rummaging the earth
Like words scrambling,
In search of a metaphor.

Epiphanies From A Newbie Parent

What does one say for three month old brats? The ones that make you get up at two in the night with a near-silent whimper, twist and turn their arms and feet to signal the ending of an enterprising dream, and then unleash the deadliest weapon of mass meltdown possible: the smile. What do you do with these little critters? Those that have woken up at two and smiled at you and effortlessly extracted a smile back despite all your exhaustion; those that then flail their arms and legs in joyous celebration.

How does one outwit these master manipulators? Those that know that the expressions on their face and the sound of their crying are signals their caretakers can’t ignore and use that to the maximum effect. Those that walk you around the house for hours at a stretch while leading you to believe that you are the ones walking them. Those that are leading you to a state of stability and focus while you spend hours servicing their needs.

What do you with these master magicians? The ones that make you speak in a garbled language you never knew before, the ones who have you thinking of them through the day, the one who want to make you get back home in the evening as soon as possible, the ones who turn your baby-agnostic self to a child-loving persona.

What do you teach these masterful teachers? Those that have the confidence to completely submit themselves to you. Their minds are clear, their faith is total, and when one rests on your chest with his arms stretched finding the warmest reaches of your embrace and feet curled up like a little ball as he wriggles his head to find a spot of total comfort, you know that it is you who needs to learn to repay their faith. The ones who are so effortlessly intimate with you when you hold them, that you find yourself letting your guard down as the layers that we build to survive adult life simply peel off in the steady gaze of those truthful eyes.

What do you do with them indeed? Cherish them, count your blessings and enjoy the ride.

Rear Window

The crescent moon hides more than it reveals. Above the glistening arc lies a veil of secrecy. The arc stretched one corner of his eye to the other as he peered at it through the telescope. As promised, the last of the month had brought with it clear skies. It was balancing the books, making up for the obfuscations that cloud covers brought, often hiding the source of lightning as it struck from up above.

A chance encounter had got him invited to this party. His offer of help to shift a sofa two flights up in a building across him had landed him a bottle of beer in his hand and five introductions as he sifted through the kitschy music blaring out of a refurbished CD player. It was a world away from his plush penthouse just across the road, and he wondered again why he was there. It wasn’t his scene, it wasn’t, he guiltily thought, in his class. But the novelty of it all had been too much to resist, as was the faux-urbane charm of the couple he was helping. Why, they were also into astronomy, those geeks.

Bored with the luminescence of the moon, he drifted across the sky identifying the few constellations he could name. Just then, a drunk reveler stumbled into him pushing his elbow and shaking the telescope. He spent some time wiping the spilt beer of his coat and decided to assess the displacement of the fine-tuned instrument. His eyes met a strange sight at the other end of that lens. A building that looked familiar. His own. A terrace that he recognized. His own. Two figures clad in black climbing down the pipes from that terrace with contents of a broken safe. His own. A sickening feeling overwhelmed him as the CIO of a Fortune 500 company stared at his company secrets going down the drain, literally. Beware of strangers bearing gifts of free beer!

The Child Is The Father Of Man

He gazes at that small serene face
And marvels at life's great irony:
A man of thirty years
Searching himself
In a boy of thirty days.

P.S> I had warned you about parenting posts. Here's one.

Hindi Film Songs: Best of 2008

In continuance of an annual tradition, I am back with the fifth edition of the list of my best Hindi film songs from the year (previous lists: 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007).

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. In particular, I have not followed any of the December releases well since I was busy with the birth of my son. Hence, Raaz 2 and Chandni Chowk to China will be reviewed in next year’s list.
3. Some of the movies will be releasing next year but since their songs have released this year before I decided to clamp down on the list, I am including them. Similarly, movies that released in 2008 were covered in the 2007 list if their music was out then
4. 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.

I have included links to each of the songs on the list. Caution: I have noticed that musicindiaonline tends to be very flaky at times, so if the link doesn’t work, scoot over to other sites, but do listen to the songs.

Adding a year end assessment this time round: It has been a mixed year for Hindi film music with a lot of music directors like Pritam and Mithoon producing nothing of substance. Overall, the year belonged to A. R. Rehman. He produced as varied as Jodha-Akbar and Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na. However, his best work was not for a Hindi film (which is why it isn’t on this list). Slumdog Millionaire has an absolutely brilliant sound track and you absolutely must hear it and then hear it again when you watch the movie to realize its quality. As I write this, the Golden Globes and Oscars aren’t out and I am hoping he wins both. However, the best Hindi film OST of the year was Rock On without a doubt. The setting was very unique for a Hindi film and the success of the soundtrack lies in its ability to fit in effortlessly with the theme. Even the lyrics in Hindi never seemed awkward. The Mangeshkar sisters weren’t heard much, Sonu Nigam had a good song or two and Alka Yagnik came in and impressed intermittently. Sunidhi and Shreya continue their challenge for the top spot while the male singers don’t have any such contention going on. There’s too many of them and none of them are getting stand out songs bar maybe Sukhwinder. Lyrically too, nothing substantially outstanding either from Gulzar, Javed Akhtar or Prasoon Joshi like the previous year. I guess while there were one or two good songs in different films, there weren’t that many great albums one could point to. Overall, it wasn’t the best of years, nor was it the worst of years.

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.

Song : Vaada Tumse Hain Vaada
Movie Name : 1920
Singer : Parveen Sultana
Music Director : Adnam Sami
Lyrics : Sameer
Why is it on the list? : You rarely get to hear this fine singer in Hindi films. Sole reason why this song is on the list. Interestingly, Adnan seems to get amazing singers to sing his songs. There is another version of this song by Pt. Jasraj, but it didn’t register with me. Adnan needs to up the ante on his compositions to do justice to the singers he gets to sing them.

Song : Ek Lau
Movie Name : Aamir
Singer : Amitabh , Shilpa Rao
Music Director : Amit Trivedi
Lyrics : Amitabh
Why is it on the list? : Beautifully written and rendered composition. Seems appropriate for the victims of the Mumbai terror, doesn’t it?

Song : Ha Raham (Mehfuz)
Movie Name : Aamir
Singer : Amit Trivedi, Amitabh, Murtaza Qadir
Music Director : Amit Trivedi
Lyrics : Amitabh
Why is it on the list? : Another lilting composition from this rather unconventional movie.

Song : Khuda Jaane
Movie Name : Bachna Ae Haseeno
Singer : Kay Kay, Shilpa Rao
Music Director : Vishal-Shekhar
Lyrics : Anvita Dutt Guptan
Why is it on the list? : Best song of the movie. Kay Kay and Shilpa Rao shine in this song.

Song : Ahista Ahista
Movie Name : Bachna Ae Haseeno
Singer : Lucky Ali, Shreya Ghoshal
Music Director : Vishal-Shekhar
Lyrics : Anvita Dutt Guptan
Why is it on the list? : Reminds me in part of Khuda Haafiz from Yuva, but that may also be influenced by Lucky Ali’s presence.

Song : Desi Girl
Movie Name : Dostana
Singer : Shankar Mahadevan, Sunidhi Chauhan, Vishal Dadlani
Music Director : Vishal-Shekhar
Lyrics : Anvita Dutt Guptan
Why is it on the list? : Yes, Yes. As a true blue desi boy, I whole-heartedly agree with the lyrics!

Song : Khabar Nahi
Movie Name : Dostana
Singer : Amanat Ali , Shreya Ghoshal, Vishal Dadlani
Music Director : Vishal-Shekhar
Lyrics : Anvita Dutt Guptan
Why is it on the list? : Amanat does a good job with this composition that doesn’t particularly rise above the ordinary

Song : Bandagi
Movie Name : Drona
Singer : Roop Kumar Rathod, Sunidhi Chauhan
Music Director : Dhruv Ghanekar
Lyrics : Vaibhav Modi
Why is it on the list? : Gem of a composition on an otherwise ordinary album. Sunidhi and Roop Kumar are fantastic here.

Song : Guzarish
Movie Name : Ghajini
Singer : Javed Ali
Music Director : A.R. Rahman
Lyrics : Prasoon Joshi
Why is it on the list? : Prasoon/Rahman team up after RDB for an album that doesn’t aspire to be very different. This is a conventional composition but well executed by Rahman and his current favorite Javed Ali.

Song : Latoo
Movie Name : Ghajini
Singer : Shreya Ghoshal
Music Director : A.R. Rahman
Lyrics : Prasoon Joshi
Why is it on the list? : Catchy composition (how can you argue with the word Lattoo being used?). I like Shreya’s energy in this song. Typically, you’d expect this song to go Sunidhi’s way.

Song : Jaane Tu Mera Kya Hai
Movie Name : Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na
Singer : Runa Rizvi
Music Director : Rahman AR
Lyrics : Abbas Tyrewala
Why is it on the list? : I actually liked this rendition more than Sukhwinder’s version. The new singer has done a fine job with this. I believe they shot a video for this and played it in theaters once the movie picked up.

Song : Kabhi Kabhi Aditi Zindagi
Movie Name : Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na
Singer : Rashid Ali
Music Director : Rahman AR
Lyrics : Abbas Tyrewala
Why is it on the list? : Breezy, light, goes with the mood of the film.

Song : Pappu Can’t Dance
Movie Name : Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na
Singer : Anupama Deshpande, Benny Dayal, Blaze, Darshana, Mohd Aslam, Satish Subramanium, Tanvi
Music Director : Rahman AR
Lyrics : Abbas Tyrewala
Why is it on the list? : I believe this has been written for me and many others that I know

Song : Jashn E Bahaara
Movie Name : Jodhaa Akbar
Singer : Javed Ali
Music Director : Rahman AR
Lyrics : Javed Akhtar
Why is it on the list? : Rahman has had a prolific year and this soundtrack heralded it. Not sure why he didn’t go with Sonu for this track, but Javed Ali did a very good job. Even though he was part of ‘Kajrare’, this was his breakthrough song.

Song : In Lamhon Ke Daaman Mein
Movie Name : Jodhaa Akbar
Singer : Madhushree, Sonu Nigam
Music Director : Rahman AR
Lyrics : Javed Akhtar
Why is it on the list? : Very well sung and the chorus has been used to very good effect to vary the tempo of the song.

Song : Aai Paapi (Tu Hai Meri Soniye)
Movie Name : Kismat Konnection
Singer : Neeraj Shridhar
Music Director : Pritam
Lyrics : Shabbir Ahmed
Why is it on the list? : I love the use of trumpets at the start of the song. One of those foot-tapping numbers where the lyrics make little sense.

Song : Bakhuda Tumhi Ho
Movie Name : Kismat Konnection
Singer : Alka Yagnik
Music Director : Pritam
Lyrics : Sayeed Quadri
Why is it on the list? : I especially liked Alka in this song. You can see that Aziz Mirza misses having Jatin Lalit as his composers. This is something you’d expect from them.

Song : Meelon Ka Jaisa Tha Fasla
Movie Name : Love Story 2050
Singer : Kay Kay
Music Director : Anu Malik
Lyrics : Javed Akhtar
Why is it on the list? : When you have a debut movie with so much money poured in, great music is a must, especially if your main hero is attempting to copy Hrithik Roshan. The music disappointed and Anu missed a golden chance to get back in the big league again. This was a decent composition.

Song : Mausam Achanak Ye Badala Kyu
Movie Name : Love Story 2050
Singer : Shaan, Alka Yagnik
Music Director : Anu Malik
Lyrics : Javed Akhtar
Why is it on the list? : The other good melody from the movie.

Song : Haule Haule
Movie Name : Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi
Singer : Sukhwinder Singh
Music Director : Salim-Sulaiman
Lyrics : Jaideep Sahni
Why is it on the list? : A song that gradually grows upon you on multiple hearings. It certainly did on me. The beauty of the song is enhanced with the picturization, done in all of three shots.

Song : Tujh Mein Rab Dikhta Hai
Movie Name : Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi
Singer : Roop Kumar Rathod
Music Director : Salim-Sulaiman
Lyrics : Jaideep Sahni
Why is it on the list? : Perplexed by the choice of singer, but Roop Kumar does a decent job with a good melody.

Song : Alvida
Movie Name : Dasvidaniya
Singer : Kailash Kher
Music Director : Kailash Kher
Lyrics : Kailash Kher
Why is it on the list? : Kailash Kher dons all three hats and you can see how the composition reminds you of his hugely successful ‘Teri Deewani’ from his private album. The song is in sync with the theme of the movie and holds you from the start to the finish.

Song : Zindagi Ye
Movie Name : Dil Kabaddi
Singer : Rahat Fateh Ali Khan
Music Director : Sachin Gupta
Lyrics : Virag Mishra
Why is it on the list?: A song with an addictive rhythm. Rahat owns the song.

Song : Race Saanson Ki
Movie Name : Race
Singer : Neeraj Sridhar, Sunidhi Chauhan
Music Director : Pritam Chakraborty
Lyrics: Sameer
Why is it on the list?: A number that grabs you from the start and does not let go. The movie was entertaining with all its twists and turns and Pritam comes up with a power-packed number to best represent the movie. The guitar pieces in the song are used effectively

Song : Pehli Nazar Mein
Movie Name : Race
Singer : Atif Aslam
Music Director : Pritam Chakraborty
Lyrics : Sameer
Why is it on the list?: Atif excels in his usual full throated style in a number created for him

Song : Phir Dekhiye
Movie Name : Rock On
Singer : Caralisa Monteiro
Music Director : Shankar Ehsaan Loy
Lyrics : Javed Akhtar
Why is it on the list?: The best soundtrack of the year, hands down. Rahman had a productive year for sheer versatility but SEL hit the jackpot with the perfect soundtrack for an unusual setting. I like almost all the songs of this movie (barring Zehreelay), but for the purposes of the list, I am going to pick my favorite three. This one tops the list. What dreamy lyrics for a simple composition.

Song : Pichle Saat Dinon Mein
Movie Name : Rock On
Singer : Farhan Akhtar
Music Director : Shankar Ehsaan Loy
Lyrics : Javed Akhtar
Why is it on the list?: Hard to imagine Javed Akhtar writing lyrics for this and an untrained singer like Farhan rendering it. But they do, and we have an anthem.

Song : Sinbad The Sailor
Movie Name : Rock On
Singer : Farhan Akhtar, Raman Mahadevan
Music Director : Shankar Ehsaan Loy
Lyrics : Javed Akhtar
Why is it on the list?: Again, unusual lyrics by Javed Akhtar and great arrangement by the composers.

Song : Tashan Mein
Movie Name : Tashan
Singer : Saleem, Vishal
Music Director : Vishal Shekhar
Lyrics : Piyush Mishra
Why is it on the list?: One of the most anticipated movies and biggest debacles of the year had music that was good in fits and starts. The arrangement for this song was good and the choice of Saleem and Vishal as singers for this song gave it the stand out effect it needed.

Song : Dil Haara
Movie Name : Tashan
Singer : Sukhwinder Singh
Music Director : Vishal Shekhar
Lyrics : Piyush Mishra
Why is it on the list?: Very good lyrics rendered with gusto by Sukhwinder. The way the drums up the tempo at the end is fantastic.

Song : U Me Aur Hum
Movie Name : U Me Aur Hum
Singer : Shreya Ghoshal
Music Director : Vishal Bhardwaj
Lyrics : Munna Dhiman
Why is it on the list?: After Omkara, I was expecting another smash-hit score from Vishal, but was disappointed. This was the only tune that really stayed with me. Perhaps he needs Gulzar to get the best out of him?

Song : Mastam Mastam
Movie Name : Yuvvraaj
Singer : Alka Yagnik, Benny Dayal, Naresh Iyer, Sonu Nigam
Music Director : Rahman AR
Lyrics : Gulzar
Why is it on the list?: The Gulzar-Rahman combo has set such high standards that it must be getting to near impossibility for them to repeat it. Yuvraj was one such score which, while being good, isn’t Dil Se. I like the gypsy style music arrangement of this song. Catchy.

Song : Tu Muskura
Movie Name : Yuvvraaj
Singer : Alka Yagnik
Music Director : Rahman AR
Lyrics : Gulzar
Why is it on the list?: This should put Alka Yagnik in contention for a Filmfare this year. She is fantastic in this beautifully written and composed song.

Song : Tu Meri Dost Hain
Movie Name : Yuvvraaj
Singer : Benny Dayal, Rahman AR, Shreya Ghosal
Music Director : Rahman AR
Lyrics : Gulzar
Why is it on the list?: This song just makes it to the list, because of the lyrics. I have mixed feelings for Rahman as a singer, and this song does nothing to tilt me either way. The tune is hummable.

Song : Dhoom Tere Ishq Ki
Movie Name : Karz
Singer : Himesh Reshammiya
Music Director : Himesh Reshammiya
Lyrics : Sameer
Why is it on the list?: An annual list without Himesh? Even the worst critic has to grant him some leeway for this song.

Song : Lambi Judai
Movie Name : Jannat
Singer : Richa Sharma
Music Director : Pritam
Lyrics : Sayeed Quadri
Why is it on the list?: The guitar piece sets the tempo for the song and Richa does a good job with the rendition.

Song : Mar Jawaan
Movie Name : Fashion
Singer : Shruti Pathak, Salim Merchant
Music Director : Salim-Sulaiman
Lyrics : Irfan Siddique
Why is it on the list?: I like Shruti Pathak’s voice in this song. No other song from Fashion really hit it home for me.

Song : Shabad Gurbani
Movie Name : Halla Bol
Singer : Sukhwinder Singh
Music Director : Vanraj Bhatia
Lyrics : Mehboob Kotwal
Why is it on the list?: Sukhwinder does a fantastic job and I particularly like the harmonium. You could have been hearing this in a gurudwara.

Song : Mannata
Movie Name : Heroes
Singer : Sonu Nigam, Kavita Krishnamurti
Music Director : Sajid Wajid
Lyrics : Jalees Sherwani
Why is it on the list?: Rare appearance by Kavita Krishnamurti. Good composition, light on the years.

Song : Phir Wohi Raastey
Movie Name : Ramchand Pakistani
Singer : Shafqat Amanat Ali, Shubha Mudgal
Music Director : Debajyoti Mishra
Lyrics : Anwar Maqsood
Why is it on the list?: Remember the songs of Raincoat? Haven’t heard anything else from the music director until now. Good songs in the movie overall, and this one in particular stood out for me.

Song : Teri Ore
Movie Name : Singh Is Kinng
Singer : Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Shreya Ghoshal
Music Director : Pritam
Lyrics : Mayur Puri
Why is it on the list?: The only soft song in the movie. Everything else was bombastic. Easy melody.

Song : Jee Karda
Movie Name : Singh Is Kinng
Singer : Labh Janjua, Suzie Q
Music Director : Pritam
Lyrics : Mayur Puri
Why is it on the list?: I debated between choosing this or having Snoop Doggy Dog on the list. I am going with the former for its catchy tune. Grant it to Katrina and Akshay for continuing to shoot in 45 degree temperatures in Egypt and surviving sessions of fainting on the sets.

Song : Bheeni Bheeni Mehki Mehki
Movie Name : Welcome To Sajjanpur
Singer : Krishna Kumar, Shreya Ghoshal
Music Director : Shantanu Moitra
Lyrics : Swanand Kirkire
Why is it on the list?: The melody reflects the lyrics so well. Swanand is in fine form in this song. The team returns to give Shyam Benegal a very fresh soundtrack to work with.

Song : Jugni
Movie Name : Oye Lucky Lucky Oye
Singer : Des Raj Lachkani
Music Director : Sneha Khanwalkar
Lyrics : Dibakar Banerjee
Why is it on the list?: Female music director turns in a fantastic soundtrack for a very well made movie. You have to watch the movie to know how well it blends with the milieu of the movie’s characters.

Song : Mere Khuda
Movie Name : Sorry Bhai
Singer : Kay Kay
Music Director : Gaurav Dayal
Why is it on the list?: Reminds you of ‘Bas Ek Pal’. Same combination. Good, but not in the same class as that effort.

Song : Manzar
Movie Name : Sunday
Singer : Earl Edgar
Music Director : Raghav Sachar
Lyrics : Aditya Dhar
Why is it on the list?: I was surprised to see Raghav Sachar’s name in the music director’s column. Could do without the English lyrics, but its hard to find a song these days without them.

Song : Lazy Lamhe
Movie Name : Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic
Singer : Anusha Mani
Music Director : Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy
Lyrics : Prasoon Joshi
Why is it on the list?: So much was expected of this album, but it was a rare disappointment from SEL and Prasoon Joshi. This is a good foot-tapping number. Like the phrase ‘Lazy Lamhe’ as well.

Son-Rise!

India will have to wait, because a little someone had some other plans in mind. In all his wiggling, crying glory, my offspring has made his appearance in this world. My wife and I were blessed with a beautiful boy with a mind and schedule of his own. Parenthood is here, and I am thrilled, excited, and awed. I'll probably be off the radar for a while, or maybe you'll just see some posts on my new experiences in parenting. Who knows?

Here's introducing Aarush Parth Pandya; whose name means the 'First Ray of the Sun' (you can see the optimism of the parents reflected here: may he sleep until dawn). Both mother and son are doing fine, and father, well, he is surviving too :-) The blogger has turned father, and requests the blessings of his readers for his son and patience while he adjusts to his new role. In retrospect, there was one post left for 2008 after all. As it turns out, it was the most important one of them all!

Ready Steady Go!

India beckons. Mumbai calls out. My shortest trip in all these years (all of nine days including travel). So short that you wouldn't have noticed the difference in the frequency of posts. So short that I doubt I'll be crossing over the borders of Andheri and Parle while I am there (other than a day to the Central side). Wonder if the scarred city of Mumbai is going to be any different given that I am just going to touch the surface. Brabourne was one of my scheduled destinations this trip before the world turned upside down a little while back, and now, that long cherished dream of watching a test match live seems irrelevant in its incompletion. But happier occassions beckon in this sojourn and I expect to make the most out of it. Yes, the trip is on and this then, will be my last post of the year. I'll be back with my annual song listing come January (a public commitment might hopefully stir me out of inaction). Enjoy your holidays and wishes in advance for a great new year!