I now love mess

How do you handle a messy room?
I sit on the bed and look around at the helter skelter mess that grows and grows. It isnt that messy today. I can actually see a little bit of the bed and quite a bit of the floor today. Its been sometime I gave up active cleaning. Why bother when the clean room lasts about as long as i clean and i now have stopped dreaming about ever living in a clean house. I now handle mess in a more efficient way. Step one. Look around... Admire all the things that have turned up on the bed. There are sketch pens, some open... A scrap book...Cleaning tissues. Used tissues... Kiddo books.. mp3 player... Mobile phone.. wet towel... Baby Powder...tea cup... Banana peel...a husband with an ipad. After you have finished sighing, close your eyes. And go to sleep.

Learning to be a big sister

The hardest part about having a second child is the inevitable reduction in attention that the older child is subjected to.  Even if you want to it just cannot be helped. The difficult two weeks postpartum for the mother plus the demanding new born leaves little time for the older child as i found out. Even if your spouse is there to look after the older kid, the child goes thru' trying times coping with the little intruder who gets priority attention from mama. Its no surprise that the child feels some resentment towards the baby. We had prepared our older daughter for the new arrival this last year since we found out about my pregnancy. We got her books about how her favorite charachters copes with the birth of a sibling. yet we expected some resentment. And it came. She announced the first night at home amid pools of tears that she didnt like the baby and didnt want to be a big sister. She wasn't the only one who cried. We told her its okay not to like the baby and that it was difficult to be a big sister. We let her anger come out. The resentment trickled down over the next few days. Sometimes she would say playfully that we could float away the baby in a basket like baby karna of mahabharata fame! But suggest that we would actually give the baby away and she doesn't agree. Once we playfully pretended to be thrown out of the house and in reality hid behind the door. She went out searching for us with concern and when she found we were inside afterall, got angry at being fooled and burst into tears! It broke our hearts. And now she absolutely adores the baby. Has coped amazingly well. Loves to shower her with kisses and overflowing sisterly affection. I keep an eye out on symptoms of resentment hidden inside a palour of affection. But her love seems to be heartfelt. Sibling rivalry is bound to set in once they start stepping into each others space but as of now its hunky dory.

After the second baby

Its been a long time since I visited these parts! If time was a limited quantity before it is even more so now since I had my second baby. But I discovered an easy way to find time to do my thing. A smart phone with necessary apps. I now read on my phone. Finished two classics- the secret garden and sense & sensibility in the last month... check mails, chat, am connected on social networks... Post my opinion... Share photos and now am blogging on the keyboard of my phone. Life or a good part of it is accessible on 3"x5" of a gadget.
What more do you want.. a baby in one arm and a smart phone in the other. Life is good :)

Unforgettable Jagjit Singh

Jagjit Singh to me was synonymous with Ghazals. My brother was the one who introduced me to Jagjit Singh and it was easy to fall in love with his music. It became a passion to own his albums and each was appreciated. My interest in Ghazals triggered,I listened to other singers but none appealed to me as much as Jagjit Singh did. For me, Ghazals began and ended with his lilting voice. Recently I have grown to admire Ghulam Ali. But the distinctness of Jagjit Singh's compositions stand apart. He made Ghazals popular and introduced western musical instruments into the genre without taking away its essence, something which other contemporary singers could not manage as well. It is debatable whether he was a better singer or a better composer. His compositions were honest to the meaning and emotions of the lyrics and caprtured the mood of the song perfectly... whether it was the romantic, " sarkti jaaye rukh se naqaab" or the pensive , "shaam se aankh mein nami see hai", one of my personal favorites. His live shows were extremely entertaining as is clear in the recordings. I nursed the desire to attend his live show but that desire has now died in my heart, unfulfilled and the sense of loss is crushing. When I was studying in Nagpur, he had performed live in the city but i didn't have the money then to buy tickets then. Few years later he was to perform in Bangalore while I lived there and I tried to get a ticket but I couldn't. I always hoped there will be a time when I will be able to do it. That day will never come. My cousin sister once called me and I could hear Jagjit Singh in the background. It wasn't a CD. She was attending a live show and thought of calling me, knowing how much I liked his music. That was as close I came to listening to him Live. Jagjit Singh also fueled my interest in Urdu poetry, Ghalib in particular. His music for the Televised Series on Ghalib by Gulzar is one of my favorite albums. I owned the album and gave it away to a friend who listened to my cassettes and loved the music. For a long time I was forlorn hunting for the album in music shops and finally bought the CDs. No Ghalib rendition enthralls me more than Jagjit Singh's. Everyone must die. And most will be remembered by their loved ones. But some come along who will always be remembered in the annals of history for their contribution to mankind. Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, Steve Jobs... Jagjit Singh. Photo: Jagjit Singh performing at Symphony Hall, Birmingham, 12 September ... en.wikipedia.org

‘Pottered’
J K Rowling published her first Harry Potter book in 1997. And since then the world has been divided into those who have read Harry Potter and those who haven’t. Until June of this year I belonged to the latter category. I kept away from Harry Potter and his adventures for primarily two reasons. These were for kids, right? And fantasy fiction is not my favorite genre when it comes to reading preferences.
The final movie in the Harry Potter series, HP and the deathly hallows – 2, released earlier this year. I read comments of friends who went and saw the movie with an air of indifference. I had once taken a peek into my niece’s Harry Potter book and knew about Dumbledore. I saw bits of the first movie in the series – HP and the sorcerer’s stone. This was some time back and this was how knowledgable I was about HP.
Sometime in June this year, while I sailed with my sailor husband, I ran out of reading material on board and the only thing left for me to read were the e-book versions of Harry Potter. And I decided to take the plunge. Since then I have spent a huge chunk of my leisure time (which is meager in itself) reading up on the adventures of Harry Potter. I was in a sort of suspended living. Important things to be done were often squeezed in few days of break that I took between each book. I was ‘avalanched’ by Harry Potter! Initially I read on the computer. Recently my husband bought a kindle – e-book reader. And it got easier to read on it.
Sometimes I wish I had not kept myself bereft of the books for so long. But there were advantages of starting late. I didn’t have to wait for months, sometimes years, for the next book in the series. Today I stand a die hard fan of Harry Potter. And I totally understand the mania. As luck would have it HBO was airing movies in the series in the months of August and September and I managed to catch few of them. Of course the movies only touch part of the books leaving out many parts. It is infinitely better to read the book and then follow it up with the movies, as is the case always. I have even introduced Harry Potter to my 3 year old as part of her bedtime stories!

The final part of the series, the deathly hallows, was not available on the ebook format. And so I harangued my husband until he ordered the paper back version. I await that with bated breath, wanting to know what fate lies ahead for Harry Potter and his nemesis, Lord Voldemort. A part of me also dreads the day I finish it. For the characters in the book have been my constant companions over the past few months and there will be this vacuum which will be hard to fill. There is this feeling of melancholy that I invariably feel after the end of a good book when I actually miss the characters. I sometimes wish wistfully that we lived in a magical world of broomsticks and wands!
I have been ‘Pottered’.

PHOTO CREDITS: fanswallpapers.blogspot.com

He likes her. But he has competition. He is invited to a duel. They both fight till he is injured. He runs away, vanquished. He doesn't nurse a vengeance. No envy. Just plain acceptance. He moves on.
That happens only on animal planet

Happy to report this

I usually buy my groceries from a Reliance Fresh outlet near my office. I take my own shopping bag but when you are buying vegetables, they used to have these plastic bags to keep the beans and carrots from getting mixed up,. So no sorting out to be done later when you are stashing the veggies into the refrigerator. I would cringe at the plastic bags.
The last time I was shopping there, they had paper bags instead.
Isn't that great?

Blast in the past


I was quite annoyed yesterday when I heard the radio jockey on the local FM station repeat in “todays world cup match” a few times… A bad cold didn’t help. “Ids toborrow, you fwool”, I blurted out to the radio, piqued. That’s when my husband pointed out. They were reenacting India’s world cup triumph of 1983. So for one day, Radio Mango, Calicut took on a retro hue. They played music from that year, talked about movies that released in 83’. The news snippets were dug out from the archives of June 25th 1983 as also the gold and oil prices. Commercials sounded like they were created in the 80’s as well. A time when LPG Gas cylinder was a novelty, black and white TVs were a luxury, even though color TVS had come. You bought petrol at 6 Rs a liter, and diesel at 3 Rs. Gold cost the father of the bride, 1392 Rs for 10 gms. And of course in between, they relayed cricket updates of the final played at Lords’ on that memorable day. Like it was all happening ‘live’. Lying on the bed, recuperating from my congestion, I was impressed. What a wonderful idea. They paid a fantastic tribute to India’s world cup glory and took us all into the past to re-live the special moment. I was only 6 at that time, and had just started my second year at school! So I cannot remember a thing. But thanks to this novel idea it was like being transported on a time machine to witness one of India’s greatest Sporting achievements.

We took Ananya to see the local republic parade that was organized at Vikram Ground, West Hill . The flag was unfurled by the minister of Industries. And I heard the National Anthem after a really long time. I joined in, awashed by memories and tears! As the parade walked past at tandem, I was transported back to my school days when we were part of the parade. There were three schools in the colony where we grew up and there used to be a competition between them. All the kids were taken to the grounds to cheer their team. There was march past, PT, Dance and singing competition and pride was at stake! It was good fun. Those were the days! And then we would rush home eating the ‘laddoos’ distributed to watch the TV and the DD broad cast of the republic day parade live from New Delhi. And like my cousin recently put it, it hasn’t lost its charm!
I love watching the parade, as a slice of Indian culture and Defence might marches past every bit proud and elegant. I hope to be there some day and witness it live.
The people of Calicut have launched a drive to declare Calicut district plastic free and on the occasion had organized a human chain from Azhiyur to Pantheerankaav, the two extremities of the district. Lots of school kids participated as did working members of different political parties and citizens. We did our part and stood in the line while M.T.Vasudevan Nair, the renowned Malayalam writer read out an oath which was heard all along the stretch of people via loud speakers. Since then I am becoming aware of how much plastic we all use in our daily lives and many if not all can be avoided. Using cloth carry bags for shopping is the least we can do. Plastic has replaced all our storage jars in the kitchen. Perhaps we can go back to the Glass jars of yore. Most of the cosmetics that we buy come in plastic containers. It would be nice if the manufacturers bought the containers back for reuse. Many of the toys come packaged in plastic moulding. We once bought a printer where the shock absorbing casing was made out of recycled paper and I was impressed. Clearly, more people should be doing this.
I don’t think plastic can be avoided but we can reduce its use and also initiate a good disposing system primarily a recollection centre. This has to be tackled at the administrative level with suitable legislation. We can start by putting away all unnecessary plastics.

Simmering
On the frying pan of destiny
Marinated in the spice of discontent
A peep in the past
At all the moments wasted
And all that could have been
Breaks the peace on the surface
As the bottled rage
Still molten within
Breaks out
In an explosion
Every now and then
The light of reason
Fails to heal the despairing depths

Movies, Fragrances and memories


I was watching a movie on TV. Independence Day. It reminds me of my college days cause’ that's when it was released and I and my friends went to watch it in the cinema theater.
There are these props in life that has memories sticking to it and when you revisit those props... the memories are refreshed! Books .. clothes... movies.. music… they all have the ability to take us into our pasts. Like if there was a book that was introduced to me by a friend, I can’t take the book again or remember it without also remembering the friend and then I start dreaming about that person. There are songs that take you back to the moment. One of my cousin brothers, introduced me to ‘The Eagles’. And whenever I hear the song ‘ New kid in town’, I revisit the summer vacation at my grand mom’s place listening to the song and playing caroms! The days of leisure, they were. In fact most things around you can do that. Now, fragrance is the most sticky. A particular perfume would take you back years to a very specific moment! Its amazing. I used to walk to my tuition classes in autumn and this particular fragrance was in the air. I don’t know what flower it was. But years later I chanced upon the same smell and I was instantly transported mentally to that moment… Its magical. The smell l of Johnson’s baby powder takes me to the early days with my daughter!
Now we can’t bottle up fragrances on whim but we can enjoin a particularly special moment with a fragrance. What I mean is, suppose you are about to embark on a pleasant journey, perhaps on your first date, or the day you moved into your house, or the day you brought your baby home. You could buy a new perfume for the occasion and spray it in the air so the event and the fragrance are for ever united. And every time you sniff that particular perfume, you will be instantly transported to that moment in past!
Going back to ‘Independence Day’ I couldn't help but wonder how cliched the theme was. The direction utterly predictable. The aliens always pick the Americans to start the war. And of course the flamboyant men in uniform save us all! I can’t imagine how we loved the movie then. The good looking actors probably veiled our reasoning and our youthful hearts were made to flutter! Though I couldn't enjoy the movie now, I couldn't help but be moved in the emotional scenes. Even though I knew what was in store and who would die and who would kiss… I still was emotionally stirred. You can’t help it. Is it a women thing? And after the movie as I lay thinking before sleep overcame me, it occurred to me that at the core of all these movies, there was essentially human emotions .Whether a drama or a fantasy fiction or an out and out action thriller, what moves us are the human emotions. No matter what we create, the ugliest aliens, or unbelievable beings like in Avatar or the classic ‘ lord of the rings’ or any war movies or any animation movie… At the core lie things like love, honor, courage, hope no matter how we dress it up.

A little tired

A little tired
of pointing fingers at you
A little tired of being judged
For words blurted out
A little tired of routine
Tired of mundane
A little tired of jokes
That never change with passing days
Tired I am of expectations
Tired then of self pity
Tired of being made out the sinner
Tired of defending

Tired. Just a little tired today.

They say Books can tell a lot about your character. In the new age, The profile pictures you put up on networking sites speak about the person too!
Lovers put couple pictures of themselves. Parents put pictures of their children or of themselves with their child. Its almost impossible to find pictures of couples together when they have children! Then, most put up flattering pictures of themselves! You wouldn't want to put a picture in which you look stupid! Its about putting your best foot forward! But there are some who put up goofy pictures of themselves. People who have learnt to laugh at themselves and not to take themselves seriously. There are the secretive kind, who avoid pictures, the mysterious, the paranoid perhaps. There are those serious people looking as serious in a passport picture. And there are those who hide behind pictures of celebrities. Perhaps a little insecure, inconfident.
Scanning all those pictures tell you all that you need to know about your friends.

Photo credits : socialmediamom.com

The year is turning.
There is the usual excitement and bonhomie. There is hope for those who believe in numerology. Or despair for whom the dice fall unfavorably. And for most like me, there is nothing new. You wake up on the same bed. In the same room! A day older! The sun rises as faithfully as ever. And nature wakes up. Its business as usual for the butterflies and the birds.
It’s a good time to look back on the year gone by and remember all the wonderful moments you enjoyed with family and friends who count ... Moments when people brought you joy and comfort.New places that you treaded... new friendships, formed and forged... The fine books that kept you company... the lessons learnt and understood... Prayers answered...criticism accepted... mistakes made that made you wiser...the few moments when you conquered your anger with love and patience...efforts to lighten up and let go...

It’s been a good year. :)

More work to do starting tomorrow.

The art of Writing… a relic?





My cousin sister’s precocious son is only 3 years old. And boy can he spell! He can type the correct spellings of words from car and truck to pentagon and hexagon.  Oh by the way, his favorite word is the truck and he even chose a birthday cake with a truck iced on it…hmm Sometimes when I sit on the computer checking mails, my daughter likes to come and sit on my lap.. She wants to watch Abby Cadabby video (of Sesame Street fame) or may be photos from our hard disk. Few days now I open the notepad with big font size and let her type. And she enjoys getting the alphabets on the screen. She can recognize most of them but gets confused between M and W! Anyway. And that got me thinking…


These kids are going to grow up and use the keyboard, no matter what profession they choose. Do they even need to learn how to write? People invented writing in order to save the words and texts for posterity. For instance, the scriptures in the Vedas initially were passed down from teacher to disciple by word of mouth. And many were lost. Until they decided to record it on leaves. Then came printing. So with all these gadgets that we have today and that we will see in the future, why should kids learn to write? Typing is so much easier than writing! Writing will probably be relegated to a skill like dancing that kids learn as a hobby or something! Similar to ‘Abacus classes’ these days!
Conversation in 2050-
Mother 1: I am sending my son to ‘writing’ class!
Mother 2: Really? Wow.. You mean like using a pen? That’s amazing!!
I wonder… if children don’t learn to write, are they missing something? Like, does it help in brain development? I know it improves memory. You are more likely to remember something that you write vis-à-vis read. But typing won’t be too different!
The only scenario I can think where it might be a problem is, should there be a massive power grid failure…

Photo credit: blog.nj.com

I was watching "Face off", a brilliant movie by John Woo. Its about this cop, John Archer who has an operation and gets his face exchanged with that of a criminal, Castor Troy, who was in a coma. Troy and his brother, who is in a prison, are the only ones who know the location of a nuclear device set to explode in LA. So Archer decides to go to prison with Troy's face to get the information. Meanwhile The faceless Troy, gets out of his coma and he and his men force the doctor to replace his face with the Cop's i.e Archer's. So the cop is now with the criminal's face and vice versa. Its an interesting plot.
And it reminded me of this.

“Upon a day Beauty and Ugliness met on the shore of a sea. And they said to one another, 'Let us bathe in the sea.' Then they disrobed and swam in the waters. And after a while Ugliness came back to shore and garmented himself with the garments of Beauty and walked his way. And Beauty too came out of the sea, and found not her raiment, and she was too shy to be naked, therefore she dressed herself with the raiment of Ugliness. And Beauty walked her way. And to this very day men and women mistake the one for the other. Yet some there are who have beheld the face of Beauty, and they know her notwithstanding her garments. And some there be who know the face of Ugliness, and the cloth conceals him not from their eyes.” - Kahlil Gibran

Here comes the Sun

One of my cousins has been posted to the UK for the last year and a half. When we met recently we got talking about the weather. He talks about dark London winters when the sun rises late and sets early. And summers when the sun is shining brightly at 9 in the evening!




I recollect Federer and Nadal's epic Wimbledon final (was it in 2008?) that went past 8 PM or something and it was still bright! I once sailed with my husband (he is a sailor) in 2006. I joined him at the port of Antifer on the east coast of France. This was in the month of December. It was 4 degrees in the sun at noon the day I landed! When I woke up the next morning at around 7:00... it was still dark. I could hear the wind whining trying to get in through the glass panes. The streets lights were on and the cars sped on the street below with their wipers working furiously. For some time I was totally disoriented. It was like being back in India at 7:00 o clock in the evening with the commuters rushing to get home. In the two days that I stayed there, I wasn't a happy person and it wasn't just loneliness. I have been alone before and many times since, but it was always sunny... We take the sun for granted, don't we? And it isn't the cold part of the winter there that bothers you. You can sit in heated rooms but what do you do about the darkness? Its such a wonderful sight to wake up and see the whole of nature basking in sunlight! All the artificial light we have invented cannot match the beauty of natural light.
As an architect, lighting is an important element of our designs.


The source of light that has a color rendition closest to natural light is the incandescent light or the common GL bulbs that T.Edison invented. Color rendition pertains to the appearance of color under a light. For instance, GL light is yellowish and warm (as is natural light) while Fluorescent Lighting (FL) is bluish and cooler. (And that's exactly why FL in garment shops always causes the blouse pieces to mismatch with the sarees which we discover when we come out in day light!) Halogen lamps have a comparable rendition but they are much more expensive and have shorter life not to mention the huge power consumption. These days in an effort to reduce our electric bills and our carbon footprint, one of the first causalities has been the electric bulb which was replaced by the FL, and the CFL (compact fluorescent lamps (12-16 watts only!) The latest trend is the use of LED lights (light emitting diodes). Suddenly we are talking about a power consumption of 1 watt and 3 watts! But all this comes at the expense of color rendition. White light tends to alter the color properties of objects. These days FL, CFL and now LEDS are available and preferred in warm colors. But LED gives a more focused light rather than a spreading light. Its good for highlighting but not the best option for general lighting. The other day I happened to use a bathroom which was lit using an incandescent lamp. Very environmentally unfriendly, I know. But my heart leapt like Wordsworth's did when he saw a 'host of golden daffodils'!And I said to myself,"dear good old bulb... Miss you."

Is it any wonder that the British lads, The Beatles, wrote this song?!

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun,
and I say it's all right

Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
and I say it's all right

Little darling, the smiles returning to the faces
Little darling, it seems like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
and I say it's all right

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...

Little darling, I feel that ice is slowly melting
Little darling, it seems like years since it's been clear
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun,
and I say it's all right
It's all right

photo credits:
London WInter - magazine.macs-salon.co.uk
Incandescent Bulb - businesspundit.com

Jiddu Krishnamurthy is like this ocean of knowledge, mostly incomprehensible, from where you dig in and draw a cup every now and then and sip it and savour it trying to understand the simple truth of existence. And every sip opens a tiny window deep within, unlocks the shutters to a chamber and an iota of clarity dawns into your consciousness.
“…by being what you really are. By trying to see what is … somehow I have acquired a certain character. Now I must try and see myself as I am and I must make no effort to be anything else… I am not advocating self-indulgence that a thief remain a thief. I must not submit to my weakness but I should not indulge in the opposite of my weakness either, as a way of getting rid of it…” (By observing the negative in a passive and dispassionate way with a receptive mind determined to examine the phenomenon without passing judgement, without condemnation. Looking for it cause with our total attention,n but never trying to puch it away, then there is no conflict and the negative emotion is apprehended from and entirely new angle.) “Suddenly I will discover that a transformation takes place in myself without any planning on my part, a creative transformation…”
In this connection I was thinking about reservation for minorities. And I understand why reservation fails. Because trying to segregate a certain section of people in order to give them special attention only deepens the divide forever relegating them to a class different from main stream. Creating more division and more inequality. I don’t want to question the intentions of Gandhiji, but when he embraced the ‘untouchables’ and uplifted them calling them harijans, he created an invisible transparent glass chamber for them in which they were doomed to remain for ever, never breaking free and merging with convention.
When we focus on our weakness, we are highlighting it even more thus making it strong. When we preach positive thinking, the negatives are only temporarily swept under the rug where they rot and stink unseen until the stench overpowers us causing more depression. Repression is not the solution. Acceptance is. And that comes with awareness. Awareness without judgment or emotion.

Selecting Kiddo literature - no child's play!

I once read in some article that Jungle book is a good book to read out to children. It hasnt been easy to read out to my daughter. Everytime I tried, she would stare at my face for some time and then take matters (in this case the book!) in her hands and 'read' out to me! But for some time now, we have managed to read out to her. It helps if there are lots of pictures and lots of explanation. We get extra points for funny voices! After couple of reading though, she prefers reading out to us... looking at pictures... spinning a delightful yarn.
Anyway, so I saw an abridged version of Jungle Book in a book store recently and bought it. The book is published by INDIANA ILLUSTRATED CLASSICS adapted by a Shaun Max. the print is big and there are few black and white illustrations. But I was appalled at the grammar errors and spelling mistakes.The first sentence in the book read - A family of wolf use to live on the Seeonee hills. The mistakes are abundant. Books meant for children must be especially error free lest the kids pick up poor grammar and spellings. There is no way on earth that I will ever give this book to my daughter! I read it to her correcting the mistakes as best as I could. At the end of chapter one. my daughter concluded that she didn't like Sher khan. Its amazing how a two and a half year old can relate to the emotions. When I followed the book-reading with some videos of jungle book on You-tube, she was consumed with anxiety as the little sleeping baby is left behind by his parents ( biologists). 'Amma evide? wheres mommy?" she asked, climbing on to my lap. Thats when I realised that the story isn't right for a 2 year old. Likewise, my daughter was quite disturbed with the story of ugly duckling. As the mama duck abandons the little swan because it looked different from her ducklings, my daughter wanted to know why the swan baby was crying and where mommy was. So I softened the blow and made up the story that the duck was an aunty and the swan baby's mother will come in the end of the story.
Who would have thought picking stories for children would be this difficult!



on a happier note, I picked up this book in a book shop - Illustrated Animal Stories published by Usborne. It turned out to be a good one to pick. Full of good illustrations, with simple and short texts, there are 10 wonderful stories on animals including stories like chicken little (chicken licken in the story), and 'the little giraffe' that tells you how the giraffe got its long legs and neck. I would recommend it to parents.

For the love of ROCK music

Rose bowl is a good channel. The programs are neatly presented. And they often play good movies and music. Once they aired a series of movies titled "100 movies to see before you die" and I managed to catch lots of good ones. Movies like 'Saving Private Ryan', 'The Pianist' and 'Schindler's List'. I occasionally find myself tuning-in to listen to music they play. Recently I was listening/watching while i worked on my laptop. I like a little noise in the background as I work alone staying up at night. So under the program titled 'Spanking new', I was catching up on new music. Rihanna, I learnt, still ruled the charts collaborating with few rappers for a new hip hop number. And there were other songs. They were these formula songs featuring beautiful women singers, looking stunning with lilting voices. They played never-out-of-fashion peppy love songs. Beautiful scenes... beautiful beats... Only... every song sounded like the other. And just when I was feeling sick with the mellifluous content, the program changed to 'Overload'. I guess the clock struck 11. And that's when the hard rock and metal fans are catered too. And I heard 'Metallica' sing one of my personal favorites, 'until it sleeps'. I sighed with relief.





Rock music is most misunderstood. In my younger days the peace of the house was often disturbed by my elder brother thrashing rock music on the recorder at high decibels and my parents cursing him, his songs and his generation. "How can you listen to this? Do you call this music?"!!! My now hundred years old grandmother had put a nice name for the genre of headbangers. "Avil iddi." ;) For the non malayalees, it is the process by which rice was beaten in these stone urns using long timber hammers. The name stuck. I inherited my parents tastes of music (classical and old film music) as well as tuned in to my brothers rock numbers. In the beginning though I used to gang up with my parents to snigger at the 'rice beating' music! But eventually I grew to love it. And that's when a whole new world opened. A world with meaningful lyrics and supremely talented performers. I discovered, for instance, 'The doors', whose lead singer Jim Morrisson is revereed as a poet and he who wrote philosophical songs..........
Shake dreams from your hair
My pretty child, my sweet one.
Choose the day and choose the sign of your day
The day's divinity
First thing you see.

A vast radiant beach in a cool jeweled moon
Couples naked race down by it's quiet side
And we laugh like soft, mad children
Smug in the woolly cotton brains of infancy
The music and voices are all around us.
Choose they croon the Ancient Ones
The time has come again
Choose now, they croon
Beneath the moon
Beside an ancient lake
Enter again the sweet forest
Enter the hot dream
Come with us
Everything is broken up and dances.

‘Metallica’ is my favorite metal band. I love the voice of James Hetfield. Their song called ‘One’ is on landmine victims.
…“now that the war is through with me
I'm waking up, I cannot see
that there's not much left of me
nothing is real but pain now “...
Led Zepplin formed by the enormously talented Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, combined the blues with the rock creating their unique style. And then of course the peerless Pink Floyd came along . Their music didn't fit in any genre and were labeled ‘psychedelic rock’. The music they created lead hem to be hailed as the first among hundred things that rocked the world. ‘ Time’ is one of my favorites. (I have posted the song in my blog previously and you can listen to it in my play list.) Numbers like ’another brick in the wall’, Comfortably numb’, Division Bell’, have met with insane success and appreciation among rock lovers. Listen to this.
"Remember when you were young
you shone like the sun.
Now there is a look in your eyes
Like black holes in the sky.."
Pick any of their songs. And the songs and the music will transport you to a different realm.
I am a fan of Alanis Morrisette. Her first album, ‘Jjagged little pill’, is the best-selling debut album by a female artist in the U.S., and the highest selling debut album worldwide, and she was 19 then. How about this...
‘The moment I let go of it
was the moment when i got more than I could handle
The moment I jumped off of it
Was the moment I touched down.’
Pearl Jam wrote a song called ‘Jeremy’. Its about this little boy facing child abuse from abusive parents who is shy and reclusive at school. Then one day he speaks in class.. with a shot gun...
Queen's Freddie Mercury rocked us with ‘we will rock you’. and what a voice he had! An iconic symbol of our times , rebel to the core, a gay who lived by his rules (‘I want to break free’)... succumbing to Aids but leaving behind memorable songs.
Another favorite band is U2. They are unlike any other band. Their songs are packed with so much energy. Its probably the longest running band other than the Rolling Stones. They have been performing for years now and belting chart toppers.
"I have climbed highest mountains
I have run through the fields
Only to be with you
I have run
I have crawled
I have scaled these city walls
Only to be with you
But I still haven’t found what I am looking for "…
James Brown, Nirvana, Rolling Stones, Bon Jovi, Deep Purple, Dire straits and many many more.
Those who have chosen not to listen to this brand of music are missing something. I personally feel the era of rock music is over. Rock started as this rebellion to the society and its hypocrisies. It was blunt, unpretentious, renegade. A little like the spirit of ‘Che Guevara’ . Those were the days of the hippy culture and LSD. Today what we hear is mostly rehashed numbers. There is seldom anything new and original. The days belong to alternative/soft rock and hip hop. For good rock you have to dig in to past archives. And you stop and start replaying some where in the times of Muddy waters , one of the pioneers of rock music. He took folk songs, rock and roll, jazz and mixed them in to his own style.
I am not a historian. Please don’t read this blog as a reference. I am sure there is ample reliable reference on the net. I just touched on few names that I have enjoyed listening to. I am happy enough to open a door to the exciting world of rock music. I guarantee that it won’t be disappointing. And you will perhaps understand why I felt sick with mellifluousness listening to those pretty women singing cliched love songs.


picture credits:
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