one shepherd takes away another

How many non-playing gentlemen, with their endearing superstitions, on the field can make broadcast producers/cameramen aim their cameras at you?

He, for me, was one of the few blokes who added color, and a dash of romance to cricket. He was in the league of Dickie Bird, Srinivasa Venkataraghavan, Merv Hughes, Curtley Ambrose, Jonty Rhodes when it came to combining excellence with a persona to match; take away any of these, or of their ilk, cricket would just remain an exercise in statistics, records, numbers, and boring , staid gentlemanliness.

For all he has done in making watching cricket a pleasurable exercise with his authority, and own quirks, the most noticeable being the famous "double jig" at every Nelson in cricket, he deserves rest now.




........................................................Rest In Peace, David Shepherd

Medley Melody

The coming together of a supremely talented yet scoffed at music director/producer/composer, a promising lyricist with no star wattage as yet (apparently armed with a Ph.D in Hindi), a director who one could sue for not having lived up to all his promises produces a gem that in my book could collapse under its own weight and features a truly outstanding male chorus padding up one of the most musically/vocally challenged yet popular singers of the times; to be redeemed later for our good health by a crooner whose unplugged version is a masterclass in playback singing.

........................................................Tu Jaane Na

...................................................................................Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani (2009)

strings-on-skin has never disappointed me; quite easily one of the better tracks in a long long time.

credits: Pritam Chakraborty, Irshad Kamil, Rajkumar Santoshi, Atif Aslam, and Kailash Kher

Moonlighting

akashe jyotsna

moonlight in the sky

phuler pathe chita baagher gayer karam

on the forest trail the scent of the leopard

hridoy amar horin jano

my heart is like deer

ratrer ei niraboder bhetor, kondike cholechi?

in the silence of this night, which way am I going?

rupali paatar chaya amar shorire

the silvery shadow of leaves on my body

kothao kono horin neyi

no more deer anywhere

aar joto door jaayee, kaashter moton banka chaand

as far as I go I see the moon bent like a sickle

shesh shonale horin, shorsho khete niyeche jano

cutting the last golden deer-grain

taar par dhire dhire dube jaache

then sinking slowly

shata shata mrigedaar choker ghumer andhokaarer bhetor

into the darkness of all the sleep In the eyes of a hundred does

...................................................... ..............Jibonanda Dass

I would like to go to my grave with this.

dedicated to Lakshmi Narayanan

Go Ruminate!