Miley Sur Mera Tumhara..

To the NRI, life now usually has a plethora of memories associated with their lives in India, oftentimes with a sense of deja-vu, and quite a few times, tinged with the sense of patriotism that, dormant when they were in the country, has bubbled up to the surface in all its unhindered fountain-like glory.

So it is, that today I felt the need to look up on that old classic filler song video, Miley Sur Mera Tumhara. You know, the one where various people would sing in their native tongues, but the words effectively meant - You and I, when united, become One.

Googling for that classic video actually yielded quite a surprise...enterprising MIT desis coining their own version of the vid, MIT ishtyle...
With kudos to their enthusiasm (after all, it is a rather elaborate recreation of the video) and preferring to ignore the "Americanization" of the video with shots of the Boston area, I do have to say it made for some rather really interesting viewing.

See for yourself. (Warning! The videos are atleast 10 meg in size...)

To all Rahmaniacs...from TIME...enjoy!

TIME - Richard Corliss - : That Old Feeling: Isn't It Rahmantic?

The article that purportedly appeared on TIME at the turn of the New Year 2005, coinciding with the end of Bombay Dreams run in New York.

Anyways, the best part of the entire piece, spread over three browser pages, comes, of course, at the very end...see for yourself.

Credit Card..the whats and whys..

Everything you ever wanted to know about CC's

Interesting and informative read on what many may already have an inkling of. See for yourself.

Country Roads

Almost heaven, West Virginia
Blue ridge mountains
Shenandoah River

If there was a song that was the primary reason behind a road-trip, this song was it. In mid-August of 2001, my friends and I planned on rendezvouing at a home in Iselin, NJ and then driving down to Seneca Rocks, WV for camping and white-water rafting on the Shenandoah. This took place over the labor day weekend of 2001 - September 1 to September 3, 2001 if you must know. Driving down that concrete stretch of highway nightmare known as the New Jersey Turnpike, ponying up upwards of 50 bucks on tolls alone, we rolled into beautiful rural Maryland and Virginia. Boy was it scenic...

Rolling country-side somewhere in rural Virginia..it had been just two weeks after heavy rains, and with the water re-charging the soil, there was that fresh green all around..absolutely beautiful..

Two predominant colors in the landscape...the black tarred roadtops and the nascent green of grass freshly sprouting following torrential rains of two weeks prior. And my, the gently rolling landscape dotted with white picket fences and grazing pastures for cows and horses, was like a scene out of some classic English poem.

ok, so I lied...it was not all green around..there was this hay field glowing a golden yellow in the mid-day sun...somewhere in rural Virginia...circa September 2001
And sorta true to the song, West Virginia did not disappoint with the blue ridges of the branch of the Applachian Mountains that run into the state.

Maybe, if you drink moonshine like John Denver proclaims in "Take Me Home Country Roads" you will proclaim that the ridge in the background is indeed blue! Meanwhile though, this place was amongst the most peaceful places I have been to....Seneca, WV...circa September 2001

Life is old there, older than the trees
Younger than the mountains
Growing like a breeze

I cant vouch for either, cuz I am younger than them all :)
But one thing is really for sure...life sure is simple there. And it seems like you stepped through some time-portal of some sort, because of the idyllic calm of the place gave an impression that time ran slower here than elsewhere in the country.

The peaceful hamlet of Seneca, WV as seen from summit of the Seneca Rock, a limestone formation that has weathered erosion to stand proud and towering over the town....circa September 2001

Country roads, take me home
To the place, I belong
West Virginia, mountain mamma
Take me home, country roads

If you wanna call a camping trip with almost no prior experience, as going home, then yeah..the country roads of W.Va took us home. Those three days spent white-water rafting, hiking and camping was sorta way outta the ordinary. Even though it is over three years removed from that trip, the memories are still as vivid as the day I was there - the low hanging mist during day-break, the chill that permeates the entire region during the night, the sun light falling on the face of the Seneca Rock, illuminating it like it was a beacon in the midst of swirling mist and fog.

All my memories, gathered 'round here
Miners lady, stranger to blue water
Dark and dusty painted on the sky
Misty taste of moonshine
Tear drops in my eye

I don't know nothing about moonshine, you see, cuz i am an in-bred country brute :P
Kidding aside, for what the song claims, I have to say that the air looked, and smelt and felt pretty clean. Possibly the cleanest air I have inhaled in the continental US.

Country roads, take me home
To the place, I belong
West Virginia, mountain mamma
Take me home, country roads

I hear her voice
In the mornin' hour she calls me
Radio reminds me of my home far away
Driving down the road I get a feelin'
I shoulda been home yesterday, yesterday!

We did our white-water rafting at Harper Ferry, WV, and then crossed the Shendandoah and drove along the shores of the Potomac, upstream. Often times, the road would deviate from the river and run into heavily canopied forests, where a brook would run by the roadside....

A rocky stony brook in Seneca, WV. Surprisingly, the water, while being just about upto the knee level, was still with a strong current..even more surprising...after all the rainfall that region had received just two weeks previously, the water level had subsided this far down.....circa September 2001

In the far distance, sunlight beamed on the road in areas where the canopy was missing...and it was mesmerizing and enchanting...not to mention, simply beautiful.

At last, some clearing in the canopy covering the state highway that leads into Seneca, from Harpers Ferry, WV. Almost straight out of a story book, there was a little gurgling brook running right by the road, on the right side of the picture....circa September 2001
Country roads, take me home
To the place, I belong
West Virginia, mountain mamma
Take me home, country roads

Country roads, take me home
To the place I belong
West Virginia, mountain mamma
Take me home, country roads
Take me home, now country roads
Take me home, now country roads

Compassion and Support from America

The sleeping giant has awoken, and realized the magnitude of the disaster facing South Asia. And boy, has the reaction been wonderful.

Aid pledge increased 10-fold from $35 million to $350 million, the USS Abraham Lincoln group of ships is in the Indian Ocean area, purportedly to provide help as needed off the Indonesian and Thai coast. Relief materials and aid being airlifted and sent by ships. Personal visits by Colin Powell and Jeb Bush.

And now, Prez Bush, along with the two previous presidents, Clinton and Bush Sr. are coming together in a fund-raising effort for the tsunami relief.

It is indeed wonderful to see the US government following the suit of its own public in the largesse being provided for relief. Remember, the American public had gotten into action way before Bush even stirred from his ranch in Texas to make a statement. Reminded me of 1986 and the USA for Africa relief efforts to combat drought in that continent.

From my heart, thank you..

Update
Weird coincidence...I mentioned about the 1986 USA for Africa "We are the World" relief effort, and now, that is actually a reality. The song is to be duplicated in Hong Kong, with Chinese lyrics, and a new name - Love, with the proceeds from the concert going for the relief efforts.

Hope for a centrist state

http://seetheforest.blogspot.com/

This weblog by proclaimed liberals who are fed up with the right-wing is a good resource in an effort to get the country to veer off from the far right and into a more centrist mainstream.

Hope, it seems, is still there. And if you want to fight back them rightwingers, here is how.

Compassionate Conservative? What a bleeping piece of bullshit

What a joke of a response. The official US response to what is seen as the worst natural disaster of the last 40 years, is pathetic to say the least. Does it take a bleepin rocket scientist for a redneck goddamned prez to release a bleepin statement?

Atleast, on the brighter side, the American public were not in the same insensitive pathetic vein as the so called leader of the nation.

Another interesting link that puts the American Governments effort in sharp contrast to its shameless ventures into Iraq in search of oil. Also an expose on the pathetic twisting of facts that typifies the rightwing bastar**zed media. And the venerated WSJ is at it again, calling environmentalists as a bunch of hysterical leftwing liberals. And if I maybe so bold as to copy their style of news and analyses, they also called the liberals as anti-Americans and as un-American as they can be.

As for my parting guess...it is these so called left wing Americans who have probably provided the most for the disaster relief in south Asia.

F*** the South

(Bleep)the South

Pardon my French, but I sure cannot completely edit the fascinating acronym that means copulation with the Kings permit, or some such thing.

Anyway I digress....

Interesting read, about the American South. And yeah, I am a liberal...




Thanks Vish

In memoriam - M.S.Subbulakshmi, 1916 - 2004

Bharat Ratna and noted Carnatic music exponent M.S.Subbulakshmi (Madurai Shanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi) passed away on Saturday, December 11, 2004 in Chennai India, at the age of 88.

Blessed with subliminal and possibly unparalleled talent for song, this "Nightingale of India" helped popularize the classical art form in India and elsewhere. And being born into a family of music lovers, I got lucky at an early age and grew up listening to M.S.S's songs on tape and radio.

The haunting and mesmerizing soulfulness of her voice is perhaps best illustrated in that equally haunting song "Kaatrinilae Varum Geetham" from the movie Meera. Her fluid voice, combined with an incredible vocal range and delivery served to remind me of the waters of a brook gliding ever-so-gently over rocks, lolling the listener into a peaceful frame of mind.

Like I mentioned above, my family is a musically-oriented family with spiritualism thrown in for a good measure. As a result, we were exposed to the great bhajans and hymns and chants that are part of a practising Hindu's culture. Chief among them is the ode to the rising light of the morning.. the Suprabhatam. And MSS wove her way into countless peoples morning experiences just by the sheer strength of her vocal delivery reciting.."Kausalya Supraja Rama Poorva Sandhya...". You could argue that if you had listened to someone else recite the Suprabhatam, and listened to it with the regularity that was paid to the MSS version, that would have the same appeal to it too. But, this is one of the unusual cases where the message matters, and so does the messenger.

Essentially, I guess it was the reassurance of hearing that soothing voice reciting that sloka with resonance, that put to rest any apprehension that I may have of facing the upcoming day. Similarly, her recital of Bhaja Govindam, Vishnu Sahasranaamam and Hanuman Chalisa, and her ability to be crystal-clear in pronunciation and enunciation of the Sanskrit words of these verses, has me enthralled in a way, that I will forever struggle to put that into words.

MSS' contribution to this world, if measured by the sheer number of peoples hearts she touched through her song alone, would be as close to a Herculean task as there can be. But she did not stop there, and strove to donate to charity at all available opportunities.

It is said that she rarely ever sings with her eyes opened. And for whatever the reason maybe, traditional prayers as taught to us by our parents meant that we closed our eyes and tried to concentrate on God. Hence this practise of hers was one of those implicit actions that appealed to the heart and spoke volumes of her sincerity of recitals. I do hope many of the current crop of singers would take up on similar traditions and keep the torch of classical Indian music burning high and bright.

But, her appeal was not restricted to just carnatic or classical music alone. Her famous rendition of that pan-Indian song - Vaishnava Janato, is easily one moving experience. And that song devoted to Lord Krishna - Kurai Ondrum Illai, which apparently was her signature ending to inevitably all concerts..well it is an apt encore to any concert.

My appreciation of her unique talent and ability is despite the fact that I am, you could say, musically as talented as a braying donkey. But her singing has always managed to ensnare my senses and thrown me into raptures of emotion. Thank god for the excellent invention that is the magnetic tape, and the compact-disc digitized music.

Now, even though the original beacon has attained samadhi at the feet of the Lord, we will get to hear her in unadulterated purity and sincerity through discs and tapes.

She believed that with her talents she was just relaying Gods message to the listening public. If that is indeed the case, one could easily make the argument that she did what was charted out for her, with a flourish and in a manner that far exceeded what was probably expected of her.

And we, the public - that got the magnificent opportunity to listen to her up-close and personal, either in live concert in one of the many excellent concert venues in Chennai or through the medium of TV or radio - are truly blessed to have had that opportunity.

I pray that her soul rests in peace, after having provided so much peace to her listeners.

Murder on the Orient Express...

Hercule Poirot...that French-accented English speaking Belgian detective...Agatha Christie...that wonderful weaver of mystery yarn....aah...the joy of reading the books.

Spoiler alert: Note, if you have not yet read the book "Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie" or watched the movie of same name starring Albert Finney as Poirot, I suggest you get off this posting immediately....don't tell me later that I didn't warn you.

Perhaps one of the finest mystery/crime detective novels ever written, this is a story of kidnapping for ransom, murder, and an eventually elaborate and protracted plot for revenge.

Set aboard the surreal-sounding "Orient Express", that trans-European train of luxury and wealth, it is begins rather simply with Monsieur Poirot on his way back to London to tend to a pending case...little does he realize that he is going to be close in hand as a horrific murder is perpetrated on one of the travelers, just as the train is held up by a heavy wall of drifting snow in 'Jugo Slavia' (emphasis mine).

That begins the story of Poirot's genius as he uses his wiliness and cleverness, and unabashedly come to the rather astounding conclusion (well, when I read the book the first time, and watched the movie the first time, it was astounding in the scope and depth of the plot and the scheming and planning that went into making all the things fall into place at the same time and place....a train in a desolate and freezing rural area of Jugoslavia.) as he (Poirot, of course) puts to use the little gray cells in his brain and lies down in his chair and solves the murder.

Without divulging too much, it has to be said though that the case of a certain Daisy Armstrong and her family is centerpiece to the whole case.

It is indeed appreciable that Agatha Christie even conjured up this mystery, and it is that much more appreciable that she came up with a detective who would, how shall we say....crack the case open just by using the gray matter. And her characterization of the people involved in the case....ah...sheer genius.

As an aside..it has been said that it takes a crook to nab a crook....and Poirot gets to the bottom of the murder mystery by just analyzing clues at the scene of crime and with a few interviews. So does that make Poirot a good criminal mastermind? And what of Agatha Christie? Yes, she is the author, but she did conjure up the plot in the first place and then wrote a book that was essentially how to solve it...Perhaps, she is a great criminal mastermind herself :P