Cultural Hooliganism

Woo la la Woo la la Woo la la he
Woo la la Woo la la he

The above couplet is not from any new Hindi song, this is how the song Pagla Hawa starts in the film Bong Connection !! Even more, after this sensual humming, the song starts from the Antara Chena shonar kon bairey...... !!!!!!!!!!! In the interludes, exclamations like Oh Yeah, Yo Yo also feature in the song.

Sorry for being conservative, but I was really stunned when I heard this song for the first time a couple of hours ago. The music director Neil (son of Anjan Dutt) calls it a metamorphosis of the Rabindra Sangeet, which makes the song, according to him, more melodious, rhythmatic and at-par with the modern generation! What an utter rubbish statement!!

I think that the original Pagla Hawa, composed by Rabindranath himself, has enough melody, rhythm and appeal to the modern generation who are fond of Rabindra Sangeet. So is it really necessary to experiment with and finally murder such nice creations? Some things should be allowed to remain in the way they are. After all, masterpieces can never be re-created, and in most of the cases, they turn out to be a mockery of the original.

Who knows, some day the lyrics of Rabindra Sangeet will be changed to make it more modern in terms of language!!!

Finally, following is the link of the "awesome re-creation" of Neil :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDbQKG2HMig&feature=related

Disgustingly Essential

Living alone is really challenging. You have to take care of everything starting from Apples to Zip-loc bags. For me it is more problematic since I do not have any roommates . It is not about feeling lonely, bored or things like that (in fact, I don't get time for these), but there are certain household jobs, which I dislike to do but have no other options as they are very essential as well. Here goes my list of those jobs which occupy the lowest ranks in my preferrence order:

• Laundry : This is the most disgusting and boring task I have ever done in my life. Once in every two-three weeks, I have to carry a heavy bucket full of clothes to the nearby Laundromat and stare blankly at the rotating washing machine or the revolving dryer. Two hours seem like eternity to me. Folding the clothes after drying is another Himalayan task.

• Dish washing : It always feels good to throw the dish into the basin-sink after lunch or dinner, leave the rice cooker, pressure cooker and other cookwares uncleaned within the sink. Do this for three times (which I normally do), and the fourth time you'll be in trouble. It seems to me like I had a party the night before, and cleaning those utensils take about a quater of an hour. To trouble me more, the water refuses to go away, and my sink turns into a pool, where the spoons and plates float as if to mock me. Cleaning up the entire mess takes another 15 minutes.
  

• Cooking : In many occasions, I come home around 9-9:30 in the night, tired and hungry, and when I open the fridge , it has nothing cooked in it other than the overnight rice. With soaring temper and hunger, I start looking for a meal which can be prepared with minimum effort so that I can get away with the hunger. On the other hand, when there is food already cooked(i.e, on the next day), it feels like I am the happiest person on Earth for that moment. Cooking twice a week is more than enough for me.

Each of the above mentioned tasks are very much essential for living. So, no matter how much I try to avoid them, there is no way!

Jeene ke liye kya kuchh nahin karna parta hai !

Fan-atics

For the last one-and-a-half years, Orkut has been my prime source of timepass, through which I got in touch with a number of my school mates, with whom I had lost contact after leaving school. It has fetched me some new friends as well, and browsing through the numerous communities present there, I have learnt a lot of new things, and many unknown information about various incidents, institutions and celebrities of our society.

Well, the purpose of this post is not to highlight the positive aspects of those communities, although there are some good positive aspects. On the contrary, I would like to make a few comments on certain communities and their members. In most of the cases where the community is about a person (eg, Kishore Kumar, Mohd Rafi, Uttam Kumar, Soumitra Chatterjee, Sachin Tendulkar... in short, about those stalwarts who have exceled themselves in their respective fields), I have noticed a strange aspect about their members.

It is quite obvious that if I am a member of a community which is about a person, it means that I respect that person, admire him and would propagate his positive aspects if there is a debate on a certain issue. As a fan, I have the right to do this. But problem comes when I, in order to champion the superiority of my favored person, defame another person of the same field with the same calibre. Being a fan of one person does not mean you have to disrespect every other person of the same field.

A couple of examples will make the point clearer. Rahul Dravid is a very good batsman, probably one of the few greats who have appeared in the cricket arena in the last decade. Admiring Rahul is fine. But in order to do so, defaming Sourav Ganguly is not quite right. The vice-versa case is also quite common. The thing is, if you are a real lover of the game of cricket, you will respect both of them with slight difference in the degree of likeness, but you will never disrespect one in order to project another.

Recently, I am stopping by the communities of Kishore Kumar and Md Rafi quite frequently, and have learnt a lot regarding Hindi film music. But the sad part is, here also, the story is the same. I am a fan of Kishore Kumar, but when someone says that Rafi "could not at all sing", then question arises about his sanity. It is a known fact that R D Burman has worked more with Kishore than Rafi, although the handful compositions of RD-Rafi have created history and are uncomparable. But keeping this in picture, if somebody says that RD did not like Rafi, He was just a mediocre music director or Rafi did not possess enough talent to match with RD, then according to me, that person does not have any right to speak about music. He is not a fan, just a fanatic.

Before finishing, I am unable to control myself to quote a post of a KK fanatic in one of the communities:

Rafi sang a number of patriotic and devotional songs, so what? I mean, what is the difference between the two genres? Just replace Watan by Bhagwan, then patriotic becomes devotional!! Whats the big deal??

I dont think any comment is required to defend this.

Wow, Wiki.....

A few days ago, in one of our usual daily telephone conference, the topics of discussion twisted and turned and finally, we started talking about Indian History, more precisely, about the Mughal dynasty!! It is not unusual, because when we talk, the wide range of topics sometimes fall short before our enthusiasm. So that day, we decided to refresh our long-forgotten History knowledge.

One of my friends told the list of Mughal emperors starting from Babur and ending at Aurangzeb. Then, I asked, "Okay, tell me the name of Babur's father"!! Well, this was an unusual question for them, and honestly, for me too. In general, we never felt the urge to look upon Babur's forefathers, as if, the Mughal dynasty started with Babur himself!! So, quite naturally, my friends were stumped!! Then, after a few seconds, I jubiliantly told them, "Guys, you don't even know this?? Babur was the eldest son of Omar Seyh Mirza. This is class VIII stuff, everybody should know this!!" Relishing their silence, I told them about the battles of Panipat, when they were fought, their consequences - in short, a brief background of Babur's life, and also a brief history of the Mughal period.

Then, one of my friends exclaimed, " Byata fer Wiki khulechhe!!!"

Yes, I honestly admit that Wikipedia is the secret of my information. Films or actors, history or geography, mathematics or physics- Wiki knows everything about everything. I have to type the appropriate keyword in Google, and the rest is evident. If you are patient enough, you will be able to learn a variety of things in a very short time. Whenever I have some doubt about some facts, I can double check with Wiki. I rely so much on Wiki that instead of opening books for definitions, I first read them from Wikipedia. I would like to use the old adjective Unputdownable to describe this site in one word.

So via this post, I decided to thank my dear Wikipedia, saying

Wikipedia, tomarey selaam !!

Sunday

No, this post is not about the latest movie Sunday, but I must admit that after watching the movie, I felt an urge of writing something about the most auspicious day of the week, at least for me, and may be for others as well.

Sunday has some salient features, which makes it so special than the rest of the week. The following are the unique aspects of this day which I admire the most:

• Sunday is the official "no-study day" unless an exam is scheduled on Monday.
• Start the day with a delicious breakfast comprising of Luchi, Aloor dam and Jalebi. Thats Sunday.
• Spending the entire morning at the playground till noon, playing football or cricket(depends on the season) .
  
• Returning home around noon fully tired and exhausted, your nose gets the heavenly smell of cooked mutton, as the pressure cooker whistles for the third time. All tiredness goes away in a flash. Thats the flavor of Sunday.
• Having a tight lunch and getting some sleep afterwards.
  
• Sipping the evening tea and getting out for a walk or visit friend's or relatives and spend the evening gossiping. Otherwise, keep relaxing at home with parents accompanied by some music or movies or just adda.
• After dinner , heart gets gloomy again as Monday is about to arrive in a few hours.
  

That was my usual Sunday routine back home, for about 24 years. Here, of course I miss some of the features (specially second, third and fourth), but still, Sunday brings the freshness I seek and rejuvenates me which makes the next six days bearable.

(In)justice of Nature

Tomorrow its going to be Wintry Mix!! By virtue of remakes and remixes, we are aware of various types of mixes like Club Mix, Party Mix, Dance Mix and so on. But this Wintry mix has nothing to do with songs, its a whim of Nature, where the raindrops, before reaching the surface, turns into ice. So it becomes very difficult to walk on the roads,and driving also gets risky.

My officemate, a very good friend of mine, gave me this information today afternoon as I was idling in the office. Then he asked, "What is your schedule for tomorrow?" "Nothing", I replied, "I have an off day tomorrow"!! "Ohhh man, I have to teach tomorrow at 11, when the chance of precipitaion is 80%. Lucky you!!!" Since it is winter, snow and precipitation are quite common,and we have to adapt even if we don't like it.

So when I told him this, he exclaimed,"Why me??????? Why everytime me??????" Then I understood his frustration. Last week also, it snowed on Tuesday and Thursday, and both are my off days and his teaching days!! So I offered him a chuckle, patted him and was about to leave the office, when he told, "See you tomorrow".

I replied, "I don't think so, I'll work from home". Hearing this, the reaction in his face was worth-seeing, a mixture of frustration, disappointment and bewilderment. As I stepped out, I heard him saying, "Its just wintry mix man!!! Nothing much serious." I was about to burst into laughter, so I quickly closed the door behind me and continued laughing till I came down. Later, I realised that till now, it hasn't snowed on my working days, but who knows??? So I stopped laughing and came back home. But even after a couple of hours, I am unable to forget my friend's facial expression, neither can I control my laughter whenever i am thinking of it !!