भूख

भूख,
तू ज़िन्दगी की लंगोटिया यार,
जो सिर्फ मौत के साथ ख़त्म होती है|
भूख,
तू एक पत्थर की लकीर,
जो घिस घिस कर हाथों में समा जाती है|

भूख,
तू अगर सिर्फ पैसे की होती,
तो चंद टकसालें लूट कर,
शायद मैं शांत हो जाता|

भूख,
तू अगर सिर्फ हवस की होती,
तो कुछ कोठों पर गजरे बाँध,
तेरी खुशबू में खो जाता|

भूख,
तू अगर सिर्फ हमसफ़र की होती,
तो कहीं अग्नि के फेरे ले कर,
सात जन्मों तक तुझे भुला देता|

भूख,
तू अगर सिर्फ ज़िन्दगी की होती,
तो कहीं मौत को लगे लगा,
तुझे यूँ ही हरा देता|

भूख,
क्या अच्छा होता गर तू बिकाऊ होती,
कुछ सिक्कों में तोल,
तुझे बीच चौराहे पर बेच आता|

भूख,
काश कि तू दुआओं से मिटती ,
किसी, दरगाह में सर झुका कर,
या किसी मंदिर के घंटी बजा,
तुझे वहीँ छोड़ आता|

मगर भूख,
तू भी तो साली अय्यार है,
रूप बदल बदल कर दिखती,
यारों की यार है|
कभी धूप में मिट जाती है,
तो कभी छाया में कुलबुलाती है|
कभी सूखी आँखों में जगती है,
तो कभी आँसूओं में बह जाती है|
कितना भी मिटा लूँ मैं मगर,
मिट बिल्कुल नहीं पाती है|

Are we a nation starved on self esteem?

Its an issue that keeps bothering me every now and then. Be it the euphoria around the success of an "Indian origin" (latest example a candidate for Britain's speaker) person or be it our hypocrisy of dealing with issues of discrimination on the basis of caste / race / religion.

Lets face it, once and for all, any success of an Indian origin person is at best his own success or of his/her respective nation. India's got nothing, absolutely nothing to it. Vikram Pandit left India when he was sixteen and Indira Nooyi may owe as much to Yale (if not more) to her success as much as IIM-C does. So lets study their success with as much objectivity as we can to look within ourselves instead of just laying ourselves down on our bellies to roll a red carpet just for their Indian roots. Its perhaps more than a slap on our face that an Indian sportsperson looks to foreign shores for training while any engineer / MBA looks to Ivy League as ticket to success. Till such time we look within and do something about it, we would perhaps continue to beat our chests for hollow pride in the colour of our skin (read Indian origin).

That brings us to the other issue of current racism crisis in Australia. Haven't the stories suddenly died down? What happened? Indian students urged Indian media to play it down and our media heeded? Why did Indians urge so? Why are they hesitant to come back if there is so much of fear? Simple, its too lucrative to let go. Australian dollar is still earning more than an Indian rupee! Then why crib? Any country goes through cultural transformation when faced with an immigration flux. Nowhere I intend to downplay the issue. But then, lets also look what we do on a day to day basis. Reverse racism as some people call it, is as rampant as one can imagine. Be it the fetish for the fair skin to the hatred for black or fear of a beard. I'm not even getting into the casteism. It smacks of such blatant hypocrisy that it makes me squirm.

Though the two topics above may seem disconnected but I feel they are symptomatic of a common disease (if I may call it so). Its a serious lack of esteem or a complex of hiding behind the wall of jingoism or perhaps just a lid on the darker side of our psyche. Which in turn prompts us to jump at the first instance of success for brown skin or a collective mob behaviour when a specimen is under threat or is undone by a wrong.

Honestly this is what I feel. High time we became more mature in handling things and stand up for ourselves. Introspect. Amend. And progress. Till such time maybe the question will keep lingering.

Do you agree?

Top 5 IPLs

While in my previous post, I discussed about the other IPL (Indian Parliamentary League). And it struck me that these may not be the only ones, and I came up with my favourite list.

Number 5 : It has to be the original the BCCI Indian Premier League. For one its original. People wait more for zoo zoos than the match. Strategy breaks are wasted on a fully clothed Mandira Bedi. Members of this league just do what they are expected to do. Give hugs, run like headless chicken (remember appam C when he got Dhoni out?) or just call 50 grand USD as motivation and loose the next one. Can you get more boring/interesting (the glass is half full or empty)?

Number 4 : Indian perverse league. This is an interesting league. Even the non-Indians know about it. Members of this all pervasive tribe can be found right from the beaches of Varkala in south to the banks of Ganga (dare ask me to use Ganges anyone) in Rishikesh. Any tourist (foreigner or Indian) who has shown a certain square inch of skin more than the permissible limit would have experienced them. Oh btw did I say permissible limit? It varies as per each members standards.

Number 3 : Indian Paisa League. This one is a million dollar league literally and figuratively. To know the members of this league you either need to be able to answer this million dollar question - Who has the black money? or have an account in Swiss bank or be building an 8000 cr house on the Altamount road in Mumbai. You can choose your own path to know them.

Number 2: Indian PITA league. This is a relatively new breed of members. They include the MNS, Sriram Sene, SIMI, shucks, I don't even remember the name of the group in Kashmir who asked woman to stay in houses in burkas.

And the top honour goes to ....

Indian parliamentary league ... You name it and you have it in this. Black money. Sting operation. Technology (the use of it in CD or failure of it on the blogosphere, sorry Advani ji). Flip flops. Third front. Fourth front. Back to front ;). Betting. Slog overs. Surprises (who thought about a big win for Congress?). Numbers (on screen as well as under the table). Its just a fascinating amalgamation of all the ingredients of a pot boiler. Can't get the eyes off. Even the results can change. It has an intriguing league before the thrilling semis and finals (assuming 2 days before counting and two days after). And yes, it doesn't have strategy breaks!!


There were other close competitors, The Indian Punter League, Indian Paradox League, Indian Pessimissm League .. and if there are more, do let me know you can think of !!

Finally IPL is over

Year 2008, BCCI's IPL was born. Year 2009, BCCI's Indian Premier League was held in South Africa. Was this the only difference? I doubt. All through the 2009 session, I wondered what was it that I could just not keep the same interest going like last year? Was it just me or something more to it? A news report in ET at least told me that it wasn't just me. The TVR rating (a mix of viewership and time spent on watching a program) had actually gone down. Though more people watched it, the time spent on it has gone down. So what does it tell us? Too much of cricket? Absence of Indian crowd? Strategy break? This could be as big a dark horse in this story as much was the Rahul factor in Indian Parliamentary league! As usual, more questions than answers. For me the criteria seem to be three -

One : Viewer fatigue. Its no more a novel idea. Too much of anything is bad even if its just 20-20
Two : Absence of "Indian" stars living upto their stardom. While some did perform, but none of them seemed to have captured the imagination.
Three : Strategy break. Definitely I feel. It gave the chance to viewer to move away from the screen and have better things to do.

Thus while the skirts got shorter for the cheer leaders it didn't highten the interest for sure. And guess what, I feel relieved that the league is over. I am sure lot many share the same feeling. Not to forget that I fear how it will affect our world cup chances and what so much of cricket will do to my interest in it.

P.S : Can someone please get rid of this bollywood shadow on the teams, any team with remotest of filmy connection lost (Rajasthan royal, Sharukh Khan, Preity Zinta and Katrina Kaif)

Gulaal - Review

The first time I had heard about Anurag Kashyap was when Black Friday had run into controversy and later I watched the print which made way to the Black market itself. It was a brilliantly made movie and so was the soundtrack. Then came Paanch and yet again the movie was not released. However it also had a good soundtrack. So it was a build up, towards something special expected from a filmmaker (who had a very crafty brain above the passionate heart for his art) when No smoking finally hit the screen. But what that movie did was to transform his image from brilliance to unexpected. No Smoking can be a separate debate altogether with extreme reactions ranging from cinematic assault to outright stylish. But this piece is about Gulaal.

First frame to last frame, stamped (with authority) is Anurag Kashyap. Be it the props like “Democracy Beer” (which just add that extra touch to a pleasurable movie experience) to the helmet that the protagonist wears in the end. The detailing has to be called the hallmark of Anurag Kashyap’s style of movie making (if I may call it so, within the domain of Bollywood – we know there are many in Hollywood to do that).

Next point that becomes very evidently apparent is the ease that the actors feel in his film. It just seems to effortless on their part that you do wonder how the director gets them into that zone (I’d keep Ayesha Mohan outside this domain for the time being coz honestly she was the weakest link in acting I suppose). When a movie is speckled with immaculate performances its tough to choose the winners. But in this assortment, Abhimanyu Singh and Deepak Dobriyal stand out without doubt.

Technically the movie is again very in your face kind with all the colours and hues being saturated to the maximum perhaps. The cinematography is wonderful and brings out the best of the backdrop. However, the editing could have been better perhaps, particularly in the second half. In the hindsight, the script could have also been a little tighter perhaps and the concept per se be hinged on a different premise than the struggle for “Rajputana”. At times the script seems to be dictated by the need of characterization rather than the other way round. This could perhaps be an individual choice, what comes first, the character or the script?

That brings us to the best part of the movie, the songs and the lyrics. For an audience that is used to music as breaks from scenes, this movie actually has a soundtrack with songs that are the omnipresent character. As already discussed in my previous post, Piyush Mishra has done a phenomenal job with the music. Can’t forget to mention Rahul Ram and Indian Ocean. They just keep adding feather in their caps.

Hope to just see more radically different stuff from Anurag Kashyap. Keep it coming.

Another Ton from Tondulkar

There are hardly a few things in this world that would prompt a lazy bum like me to sacrifice a peaceful sleep and get up at 3:30 in the morning. The reward must surely be something special. But then there are hardly a few visual treats which compare to the one presented by Tendulkar when he is playing at his sublime best. He's done it yet again. The God of cricket has done it. And the man can't be done enough justice by any amount of words. So just congratulations to him.

P.S : Those who have missed it, just check the shot he played of Ryder (the first ball he bowled today morning). Phew ... does it get better?

"Srishti Se Pehle" - Bharat Ek Khoj

Gulaal

I wanted to start this post as a music review of Gulaal but then I realised much of it has already been done at Rediff and here. So I would just touch upon a few things that I feel that the reviews missed and then move on to what this music set about doing in my mind or made me observe a few.

Review : It goes without saying that the album is pathbreaking and phenomenal. While it takes us back to simplicity of music it pushes us into deep thoughtful world through its soulful lyrics. Piyush Mishra has woven a creative masterpiece. While his music and lyrics have done just more than justice to the (anticipated) canvas of the movie (read theme of revolution) its his voice as well which adds to the power of this album. The deep baritone which threatens to crack at a few places gives that raw impetus which makes you feel it within. Seemingly influenced by a street theatre style its a mind numbing rendering by him in his songs. Add to it the thrust of Rahul Ram in a few pieces, what we have is not just musical and lyrical gem but a vocally stand out performance as well. The other singers (Rekha Bharadwaj and Shilpa Rao) also add to the mood. Thus what we have is a complete breadth of an experience that will be registered for a long long time to come.

Coming to the non-review part of the post, the music actually reminded me of a lot of things :-
Poetry in Bollywood : Its been some time that we heard poetry in our songs and not just lyrics. One of the reasons why 50s-60s were called the golden age of Indian film music was the soul they had thanks to some wonderfully penned words. Since the age of Sahir and his ilk its hardly been anyone who has even dared to tread the territory that was their playground. Agreed Gulzar and Javed Akhtar have made a mark for themselves and have their own distinctive style. Apart from them (not withstanding Prasoon Joshi off late) there has hardly been a poetic talent on the scene. And even their talent has also been interspersed whenever they have been given the freedom of a writer by their respective directors. Still there has always been this vaccum that still exists and whenever it is filled (as shown by Gulaal) it does bring in a fresh breeze.

Doordarshan : The music of Gulaal reminds me of the good old serials of Doordarshan which had serials who stood out even for their opening soundtracks. Be it the "Srishti Se Pehle" of Bharat Ek Khoj (listen to the chorus in "Sheher" of Gulaal), "Moonh Ke Baat" of Neem Ka Ped, OST of Vividha by A R Rahman or even Potli baba ke with chhunu vaale baba or chaddi pehen ke phool khila of Jungle Book. That was words, music and more .. Emotions

Hindi : Incidentally, while reading the other two musics reviews what struck me was use of a couple of phrases by them. "Hardcore Hindi" and "shuddh Hindi". It was as if how rare it is to actually read or hear our own mother tongue!! Its perplexing for me further because the Hindi used in the songs is not that difficult after all. Despite the fact that my education was in an English medium school we had a healthy diet of our OWN Hindi literature which was no less than any other. The fact that our mother tongue is beginning to fall in a niche rather than being a commonly understood by one and all gives me jitters. And its for all of us to think where are we taking it?

Brands : To put the point above in a different context, lets for a second assume that "Pure Hindi" is a brand. Suddenly Gulaal becomes its advertisement. Which reminds me of Thums Up and Limca. No matter how hard Coke might have tried it has not been able to kill the brands it bought from Parle (apart from Gold Spot off course). So to think of it as analogy, pure Hindi is such a powerful brand that it will never die. No matter how much of a multinational onslaught or popularisation of English may happen. Hindi will remain as beautiful as ever. And there in lies the hope .. while we may wonder where are we headed, the likes of Piyush Mishra will keep reminding us of our national treasure and so shall it be popular.

That's all for now ...

P.S : I just hope in the coming elections the communists don't hijack gulaal as their songs. But more on that later :) ..

Back ..

Its been a year since I came to write back on my blog. The year seems to have gone past in a blur. What kept me away or what has brought me back is immaterial. What matters is that I'm back and I feel like writing again!

Wishing myself a longer innings this time :)