"seethamma andaalu ramayya gothraalu
raghu ramayya vainalu seethamma suthraalu
ekam avvalante enni aathralu ekam avvalante enni aathraaalu ekamaina chota veda mantraalu"
ekamaina sotaa veda mantraaa......
the smile on his face and the naughtiness in his voice is something to watch out for... music to my ears, for years ...
SRAVANAANANDAM
Friday, June 30, 2006
Friday, June 23, 2006
Exit Wounds
...O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead...
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead...
they said the off-side could be his, if money could buy it; many reckoned it was already his,... they deified him... when he danced down the pitch to hoist the ball out of the park, and with it the opposition's hopes ... as fate would have had it, he was shown the door...
what was his crime? was it that he chose not to succumb to the demon of double standards and speak his mind out.. or was his fine balance between on-field aggro and off-field genteelness at fault? did he err on his effort in infusing that requisite dose of self-respect, honor into the boys, something the doctor had ordered for? whatever, we seem to have meted out to him a treatment no self-respecting athlete would dream of...
quoting Lord's'96, Dhaka'98, Taunton'99, Lord's'02 would do no justice when quantifying this majestic Prince...
Walt Whitman... thank you...
...My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead...
Thursday, June 22, 2006
A FEW GOOD MEN...
bush has them... manmohan has them... G-8, the UN... ... and so do jacques chirac, blair ... mush not far behind...
dapper in their look and the move, and hidden behind those shades, they bow to none... with a no-nonsense, stoic look, their body language screams alacrity and business...
atleast for me, they bring life to any visual on air,otherwise mundane...
adding their own element to the Safaris, the Chevys and the Lincolns they are aboard, their arrival marks the entry of the power they are out to protect... and in it lies their power...
In all a frame, a treat to watch.
... and maino has them more
dapper in their look and the move, and hidden behind those shades, they bow to none... with a no-nonsense, stoic look, their body language screams alacrity and business...
atleast for me, they bring life to any visual on air,otherwise mundane...
adding their own element to the Safaris, the Chevys and the Lincolns they are aboard, their arrival marks the entry of the power they are out to protect... and in it lies their power...
In all a frame, a treat to watch.
... and maino has them more
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
...bhatt for him
its a nice sight watching him debate on anything this side of atlantic and if he had age on his side, the other side as well... the felicity with which he shares his two cents on anything under the sun or the readiness with which he takes up the cause for his fraternity, something your folks warned you about as the resort of jobless and ever so bad, endears him to a lot of people who dont even know him and earns the wrath of his own...
the filmdom sneezes, he is up there... he is up there at the first signs of the movieland catching cold... the phone starts ringing, he is there... fingers are pointed at, he is awake... all this while he is being parodied on some channel or pilloried in his own circles, quite ironically, by the same people he takes up the cudgel for...
it requires nerves of steel and balls to stand up for something others wouldnt even want to be remotely associated with... yet the conviction with which he does all this, just shows there are people who believe there's a life beyond their creative and professional domains... a life that is defined by their set of beliefs and principles they value...
is there a subtle hint out here for others? bhatt naturally...
a perennial object of ridicule, will he go on?... bhatt of course
the filmdom sneezes, he is up there... he is up there at the first signs of the movieland catching cold... the phone starts ringing, he is there... fingers are pointed at, he is awake... all this while he is being parodied on some channel or pilloried in his own circles, quite ironically, by the same people he takes up the cudgel for...
it requires nerves of steel and balls to stand up for something others wouldnt even want to be remotely associated with... yet the conviction with which he does all this, just shows there are people who believe there's a life beyond their creative and professional domains... a life that is defined by their set of beliefs and principles they value...
is there a subtle hint out here for others? bhatt naturally...
a perennial object of ridicule, will he go on?... bhatt of course
Monday, June 19, 2006
...never say.... never again
i wonder... it baffles me, yet i let it disturb me... for i realise its the ULTIMATE truth we cant run away from...it would be naive of us to do so... the truth that seems to have taken a backseat, pretty unfortunately, courtesy some commonplace elements that we seem have to been obsessed with or that have come to define our lives... thats really a tragedy...
its the question of our existence, of why we are here, what are we we here for, where are we heading and WHO is controlling us? a conundrum of sorts... i have always wondered and made it explicit in various forms and across endless sessions of yapping, as to how we have taken so much for granted regarding what we see around us... how we seem to have an answer for everything... how we rationalise everything... of how we attribute reasons for everything that seems "scientific" and start pigeon-holing everything that can come in the purview of this "scientific"... of how we can never be in absolute awe of anything... seem to reason everything and when we dont have any, term them as "anomalies" or "exceptions"... this attitude applies to a whole lot of theories that we seem to abound in...
of God, of universe, of existence, of Time...
my simple, naive,yet very clear argument is... when we arent the creators of anything around us, how do we even seem to define the rules ?? when we are just here to enact the roles assigned to us in the huge scheme of things that have come and gone by and that are yet to unfurl... what do we mean when we say " there is no god.. god is all sham... there has never been a proof for his existence"... then what is this all about?! what are we seeing around us??... may be there are no Gods sitting up there in the skies aboard their vehicles and ensconced in their thrones... but then there has to be some force driving everything... we seem to be satisfied with everything that falls in our limits of understanding or field of view... we forvever seem to be ignorant of the devil in the darkness that seems to be ever so lurking... is it because we do not believe in something just because we cant see it? blame it on limited and minuscule human comprehension...
The idea is not about atheism or belief... the idea is not at all about atheism or belief...its about the accepting the reality of the force that is driving all this and that aspect of openness to anything... i repeat, whatever has happened so far neednot happen in the future, whatever hasnt happened in the past, might find its way out... perhaps not even in limited lifetimes that seem like specks on the humongous Timeline...
its about uncertainty, thats the truth... we are forever comfortably satisfying ourselves by doling out rational theories and trying to exemplify to corroborate those theories... the universe is so and so many years old... if the universe was our BIGGEST entity we could ever fathom and think of, something all inclusive, what was there before say a month before that time limit... whatever existed, was it outside universe? what was that "what" made of? the questions could go on and on...
we also seem to be defining boundaries for everything celestial... barring some relatively smaller entities, how on this earth can we define the outer boundaries for the extreme things??!!! what exists beyond, say a kilometre, beyond the mentioned boundary???!!!
there are questions and then there are questions... while for some we have answers and thats truly all our hallmark, i should say, and that's something has defined our superiority compared to the other beings and touchwood, that will continue to be so,,, We had better be in awe, enjoy it while it lasts and not fall prey to some stupid theories, and lose out on fun... there can never be a better teacher than Nature herself and lets submit ourselves to her, in toto...
as for the others , there will NEVER be answers... our scant grey matter wouldnt suffice here, and there shall never be answers...
its the question of our existence, of why we are here, what are we we here for, where are we heading and WHO is controlling us? a conundrum of sorts... i have always wondered and made it explicit in various forms and across endless sessions of yapping, as to how we have taken so much for granted regarding what we see around us... how we seem to have an answer for everything... how we rationalise everything... of how we attribute reasons for everything that seems "scientific" and start pigeon-holing everything that can come in the purview of this "scientific"... of how we can never be in absolute awe of anything... seem to reason everything and when we dont have any, term them as "anomalies" or "exceptions"... this attitude applies to a whole lot of theories that we seem to abound in...
of God, of universe, of existence, of Time...
my simple, naive,yet very clear argument is... when we arent the creators of anything around us, how do we even seem to define the rules ?? when we are just here to enact the roles assigned to us in the huge scheme of things that have come and gone by and that are yet to unfurl... what do we mean when we say " there is no god.. god is all sham... there has never been a proof for his existence"... then what is this all about?! what are we seeing around us??... may be there are no Gods sitting up there in the skies aboard their vehicles and ensconced in their thrones... but then there has to be some force driving everything... we seem to be satisfied with everything that falls in our limits of understanding or field of view... we forvever seem to be ignorant of the devil in the darkness that seems to be ever so lurking... is it because we do not believe in something just because we cant see it? blame it on limited and minuscule human comprehension...
The idea is not about atheism or belief... the idea is not at all about atheism or belief...its about the accepting the reality of the force that is driving all this and that aspect of openness to anything... i repeat, whatever has happened so far neednot happen in the future, whatever hasnt happened in the past, might find its way out... perhaps not even in limited lifetimes that seem like specks on the humongous Timeline...
its about uncertainty, thats the truth... we are forever comfortably satisfying ourselves by doling out rational theories and trying to exemplify to corroborate those theories... the universe is so and so many years old... if the universe was our BIGGEST entity we could ever fathom and think of, something all inclusive, what was there before say a month before that time limit... whatever existed, was it outside universe? what was that "what" made of? the questions could go on and on...
we also seem to be defining boundaries for everything celestial... barring some relatively smaller entities, how on this earth can we define the outer boundaries for the extreme things??!!! what exists beyond, say a kilometre, beyond the mentioned boundary???!!!
there are questions and then there are questions... while for some we have answers and thats truly all our hallmark, i should say, and that's something has defined our superiority compared to the other beings and touchwood, that will continue to be so,,, We had better be in awe, enjoy it while it lasts and not fall prey to some stupid theories, and lose out on fun... there can never be a better teacher than Nature herself and lets submit ourselves to her, in toto...
as for the others , there will NEVER be answers... our scant grey matter wouldnt suffice here, and there shall never be answers...
for your eyes only...
nothing beats the sight of watching him in action... naturally bestowed with a frame most would die for, he is a visual treat... neither short and stump nor lanky and gawky, just perfect... this perfection translates into magic when he pulls the cherry from outside the off-stump and dispatches it to that distant corner of the park... his frame lends itself to a lot of ethereal stuff... watch him drive into the covers and in the course, me crazy... the silken grace which underlines and defines his cuts in the square is unparalleled...the straight drives down the park will do any geometry faculty proud... the wrist-mechanics could be analysed and dissected across tables and over cuppas...
Reinforces my belief in the game best played in the old-fashioned manner... loads of grace, style, white clothes and nonchalance ...
Ask the nawab of hyderabad, who he has allegedly modelled himself on, or.... better go down under and check out with the mates whose apple he turned into, in the Garden of Eden...
Reinforces my belief in the game best played in the old-fashioned manner... loads of grace, style, white clothes and nonchalance ...
Ask the nawab of hyderabad, who he has allegedly modelled himself on, or.... better go down under and check out with the mates whose apple he turned into, in the Garden of Eden...
past imperfect... future tense
looking at him gives confidence... there's much brewing around him on all fronts one could think of, yet he goes on undeterred, undaunted with a smile plastered on his face... without an iota of artifice... because i reckon he realises these are times which he would smile at, yet again characteristically, when he reflects on later... till then the count of beneficiaries of his smile refuses to stagnate... its scary at times
Saturday, June 17, 2006
bad traveller in Xanadu
...i never would want to feel at home when i am travelling abroad...
no home food, no comfort zones, no nothing...
no home food, no comfort zones, no nothing...
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
of teental and strums
i have liked music in various forms, forms as varied as they could get...
there's this particular element, i use "element" for want of a better term, or rather limited knowledge of music, that i have taken to of late and liked immensely... where desi mixes with firang, to put it more clichedly
i am talking about the combo of a tabla with a guitar on the ascent, an electric guitar more so... ditto with a dhol or a dholak...
the result is made for gods... it kind of melodifies the rawness of the percussion and gets a more international feel by balancing the earthy feel of the skin... both act complementary to each other, not displacing the other... thats the key...
"mitwa" of lagaan is testimonial to that...
there's this particular element, i use "element" for want of a better term, or rather limited knowledge of music, that i have taken to of late and liked immensely... where desi mixes with firang, to put it more clichedly
i am talking about the combo of a tabla with a guitar on the ascent, an electric guitar more so... ditto with a dhol or a dholak...
the result is made for gods... it kind of melodifies the rawness of the percussion and gets a more international feel by balancing the earthy feel of the skin... both act complementary to each other, not displacing the other... thats the key...
"mitwa" of lagaan is testimonial to that...
my pick
quite unapologetically, here's my list of the sexiest men in India, for the sheer rawness they exude and for much more
prannoy roy... NDTV
srinivasan jain... NDTV
lucky ali... Ballads and Blues
srinivas venkataraghavan... ICC Elite
shekhar kapur... Celluloid merchant
naseeruddin shah... cinema avante garde
prannoy roy... NDTV
srinivasan jain... NDTV
lucky ali... Ballads and Blues
srinivas venkataraghavan... ICC Elite
shekhar kapur... Celluloid merchant
naseeruddin shah... cinema avante garde
Bangalore-76
"As much as I like to see unconventional faces on television, I hate seeing unconventional faces on television", said he.
"Goddamn, you are so very obsessed with celebrities and the like", said she.
"Celebrities"? he wondered.
"Your set of people is so limited. In fact, I should say even your sub-set is so limited. You are forever obsessed with celebrities", continued she.
he was left agape... "celebrities" he pondered... that was as far from truth as could it get, yet with the conviction that it was said, he had no answer...
He really didnt have an answer...
"Goddamn, you are so very obsessed with celebrities and the like", said she.
"Celebrities"? he wondered.
"Your set of people is so limited. In fact, I should say even your sub-set is so limited. You are forever obsessed with celebrities", continued she.
he was left agape... "celebrities" he pondered... that was as far from truth as could it get, yet with the conviction that it was said, he had no answer...
He really didnt have an answer...
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
heck...
and i thought scrapping was something we did way back in standard two through four, pasting profiles, dead leaves, a collage of items, a potpourri of sorts...
visual zoom... tends to infinity
a big dial watch on your wrist... a monsoon jacket just snug enough not to project you as an eskimo... semi wavy mane on your head... denim worn to perfection as if it were made for you... boots that make you feel in paradise... by the door of a mumbai local chugging away to glory, slicing through the moisture-laden-post-shower air, de jure... in control of a Carl-Zeiss fitted Sony... a burning desire in heart to unravel the ethereal beauties in the simplest of objects around us that we so ever seem to be taking for granted... the eye to see the beauty in the marked and stamped ugliness... difficult?
Monday, June 12, 2006
of paanch point and singal chai
of paanch point and singal chai
of Pulsars, Engineering colleges, of Chirus, of "mass", Thursday Gods, of Biryanis, of Baawarchis, of DDLJs, of "Youth", of boot-cuts, of Kachiguda cross-roads, of teen-mar, of everything with the flow....
of paanch point and singal chai
of Pulsars, Engineering colleges, of Chirus, of "mass", Thursday Gods, of Biryanis, of Baawarchis, of DDLJs, of "Youth", of boot-cuts, of Kachiguda cross-roads, of teen-mar, of everything with the flow....
of paanch point and singal chai
Friday, June 02, 2006
utopia
south indian brahmin family - lots of folks - great uncles, gorgeous aunts, gems of cousins- academically bright and sound - subtle romance - respect and immense love for carnatic classical music - financially decent - Monsoon rains - a house in Malleswaram, Bangalore - white Fiat car - Red-oxide flooring - diverse careers and backgrounds - The Hindu - piping hot frothy filter kaapi - kanjeevaram pattus in different and bright hues - dudes and dudettes though having studied abroad for long, singing kirtanas to perfection - vegetarian platter on a banana leaf - masala dosas - Bose Home Entertainment - surreal great indoor lighting - open central verandah - jal tarang, saxophone, santoor - great dress sense - greater sense of humor and music - lots of trees - copper vessels - old heavy fans - moss laden terrace walls - curvy refrigerators of the 70s - engineers, economics professors, filmmakers, journalists, space scientists, doctors, mountaineers - m.s.subbulakshmi on a Bose - white walls - brown wooden columns - striped shirt, red sweater, rimless spectacles - terracota tiles - well stocked mini-library - high roof - levi's 501, white t-shirt - Casio digital - old, wooden furniture with simple lines and curves - idli-vada-virgin coconut chutney for breakfast - Reader's Digest - mechanically wound analog watches - good beds - late nights - curd rice with mango pickle - white striped bedsheets and pillow covers - maniratnam on a Philips / Hitachi 42 Plasma
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