tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54969022024-03-12T06:02:44.637+05:30Writer's BlogTransient Thoughtsananthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785767037331720646noreply@blogger.comBlogger320125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5496902.post-65656662389103289762019-07-15T18:54:00.003+05:302019-07-15T19:06:24.569+05:30Luck by Chance
So, this month and last were cricket world cup months. Followed it
anxiously through. Wasted a lot of time.
Maybe the shock from India’s loss to New Zealand precipitated my recent viral
fever. Who knows? India were going to make it to the last four stage - that was
a given. But it had seemed a bonus, in the end, when South Africa, the eternal
losers, beat Australia in the last league match, ananthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785767037331720646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5496902.post-77566958912066363752018-12-16T21:01:00.000+05:302018-12-16T21:01:02.301+05:30Struggling with Amitav Ghosh
Maybe because I have picked tough, big novels that I have had trouble completing books these days (reading, of course :-).
David Copperfield is still unread. I don't even remember the last book I read fully. Was it "A tale of Two Cities" or was there another, smaller read? A youtube addiction - mostly Steven Colbert, Seth Meyers and Trevor Noah - is partly to blame. An ananthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785767037331720646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5496902.post-43111276591738247602017-09-23T21:07:00.001+05:302017-09-23T21:22:43.340+05:30God bless the Indian musical tradition
Got a pleasant surprise this morning. Was looking for Meenakshi Memudam on youtube - and found a rendition by T. M Krishna. Wonderfully fresh, precise, innovative and high quality. I though he was an old master, listening to him, but then found some videos on YouTube - it turns out they are a bunch of young musicians - dark hair on every head, shiny silk clothes - the singer, on the mridangam, ananthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785767037331720646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5496902.post-92038440452736229092017-01-01T23:43:00.000+05:302017-01-15T02:18:33.840+05:30Roz-e-Abr
Naseeruddin Shah's well-dresssed, well-bearded upper body covered half the giant screen in the auditorium. In those early days, the regulations were lax enough to allow me to sit in the auditorium all by myself on a Saturday playing an entertainment CD - Gulzar's Mirza Ghailb TV serial. The gentle wind blowing on Naseeruddin Shah's face on screen had a minor equivalent for me from the AC vent.ananthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785767037331720646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5496902.post-30686355959442463112016-08-28T18:02:00.002+05:302016-08-28T18:02:30.788+05:30What are countries famous for?
I have become quite the world traveler recently. It came with the job, and started gradually about a couple of years ago. And only recently with multiple trips this year, has travel-aversion reduced a little, and I am realizing that this might have been something I wanted in the past.
Typing this from Seoul now. This trip had to straddle a weekend, and I went out touring this morning. Went to ananthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785767037331720646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5496902.post-80425014427663251712016-03-31T06:07:00.001+05:302016-03-31T06:15:01.107+05:30Chain of Discoveries on a Wednesday evening
Of a whim, on my drive home, I played an old favorite on youtube:
Mera Kuch Saaman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlvXDGJAMT0
At the end of this song, was a small snippet of this song that I had heard and loved before, but not listened carefully:
Jeehale-e-miskeen makun ba ranjish
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAPIzPnY3HE
http://antarman-antarman.blogspot.com/2006/11/ananthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785767037331720646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5496902.post-36122806170688640122015-06-07T22:30:00.002+05:302015-06-07T22:32:22.262+05:30Na to Caravaan ki Talaash hai...
I don't know what took me so long to look for this quawwali on YouTube. I had seen the full version on TV long long ago with my mom, and then, for long, had lamented that I had only an abridged version on my audio cassette (now gathering dust somewhere). Not that I blamed the good folks at SaReGaMa - after all they had to fit some N gems on that small cassette - Barsaat Ki Raat on one side and ananthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785767037331720646noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5496902.post-22325649095074139352015-06-05T06:33:00.002+05:302015-06-05T06:33:58.757+05:30Shatranj Ke Khiladi
One of my favourite films, for a hundred different reasons. Had to read and share this link, even though I am supposed to be finishing some work.
Surprising to see that so much "jugaad" went into a film, that on screen looks so lavishly made!
http://www.rediff.com/movies/report/when-amjad-khan-attenborough-sanjeev-kumar-got-together/20150604.htm
ananthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785767037331720646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5496902.post-76262589452614179402013-10-06T13:12:00.001+05:302013-10-06T13:12:15.917+05:30Na gavao navak-e-neem kash
http://razarumi.com/na-ganvao-navak-e-neem-kash/#more-883
Found the above translation and explanation of Faiz's "Na Gavao Navak-e-neem kash" that I am listening to to these days - sung by Farida Khanum (easily available on youtube). I am also copy-pasting the translation from the same link, in case the link becomes unavailable later. More commentary is available on the link. The translation isananthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785767037331720646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5496902.post-42289429149519154932013-01-13T20:27:00.003+05:302013-01-13T20:46:45.949+05:30Rangashankara refresher
(A long post: it might be ok to skip a paragraph here and there.)
At a loose end, since the wife and kid are out of town, I decided to go to Rangashankara. The play playing was Anabhigna Shakuntala, seemed interesting enough - though I didn't know what it meant, still don't, and would have preferred if it was the original Abhignana Shanakuntala.
Caught the bus for a change. A company ananthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785767037331720646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5496902.post-18536207143521427422013-01-12T10:12:00.002+05:302013-01-12T10:12:15.509+05:30
"3BHK flats @ xx lakhs, 3-side open, Vaastu complaint.." Well, don't advertise it!
ananthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785767037331720646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5496902.post-39333640806262397022013-01-05T19:54:00.002+05:302013-01-06T09:53:58.632+05:30Ae jazba-e-dil gar main chahoon
On request from Naira Niazi, here's a translation, with some interpretation, of Ae jazba-e-dil...
There are ghazals that you listen to because you like the poet or the singer. And there are ghazals that you sort of bump into. In Gulzar's serial, Mirza Ghalib is shown as hearing Mir Taqi Mir's "Patta-patta boota-boota" for the first time from a faqir on the street - though I ananthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785767037331720646noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5496902.post-49116078658036312262012-08-05T19:15:00.002+05:302012-08-05T19:46:11.995+05:30Regrets of a would-be physicist
Friday last, a senior physicist visited our company to talk about the Higgs Boson. It was a general talk, about how science's understanding of nature has been growing slowly, how physicists like to believe that all of nature would be based on a few, simple laws, the hunt after unifying theories, and the theoretical hypothesis behind the Higgs Boson. I don't think I understood enough to be able ananthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785767037331720646noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5496902.post-7076879708297703042012-06-09T08:25:00.001+05:302012-06-09T08:34:57.674+05:30Was that me?
It looks like I have become a new me, sometime during the last four-five years. Sudden aspects of my past life shock me. Was it me that did that? Why do I don't I do such stuff anymore or do I? Somehow the first 25 yrs of my life were a more consistent person I think.
Today morning woke up thinking about tennis. Maybe because of a slightly sore elbow gotten by playing tennis 2 weeks ago after ananthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785767037331720646noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5496902.post-67559163860294427212012-04-15T13:47:00.002+05:302012-04-15T14:08:13.482+05:30 The squirrel A bad one:Thiruvalluvar had a pet squirrel after which he named his famous work. The name of the squirrel? Thiruquirrel.ananthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785767037331720646noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5496902.post-25382547602347518392012-04-07T09:42:00.005+05:302012-04-07T10:27:45.842+05:30 Daag and his alliterations I have always contended that Ghalib and Daag used entirely opposite methods. Ghalib creates beauty out of complexity; Daag out of simplicity. But Mir was a poet of simplicity too. So what is then the difference between Mir's and Daag's poetry. The answer, I think, is that Daag's poetry is almost totally free of that precious commodity, that as Munshiji says to Amitabh ananthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785767037331720646noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5496902.post-6035194218991030162012-03-31T11:39:00.008+05:302012-03-31T15:33:52.703+05:30 Ik Vaari Ik Sardaar Si Bhai Niranjan Singh "Amreekawale" Ramakrishnan asked me if I would review his book "Bantaism - the philosophy of sardar jokes" on this blog. I accepted, perhaps a touch condescendingly, thinking I should give a hand to another budding writer. But only when the book arrived (in a cheerful red and yellow cover with a joyful sardar cartoon in the foreground of a red truck) ananthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785767037331720646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5496902.post-47152378347179808212012-02-07T12:49:00.002+05:302012-02-18T12:05:26.373+05:30 Donkeys and Lions The other day, at the entrance to the tech park where I work, I over-heard a guy talking over the phone, in an old-Bangalore accent, presumably cribbing to his friend or colleage about his (own) boss."A group of Donkeys led by a Lion will always win against a group of Lions led by a Donkey"Rants against the boss are nothing new, and the phrase in itself is quite clever, but I ananthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785767037331720646noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5496902.post-25170065369982899272012-02-07T12:33:00.004+05:302012-02-07T12:46:57.403+05:30 Midnight In Paris Got to see Woody Allen's Midnight In Paris, on a plane from Dubai to SF. Last time on an Emirates flight, it was Abida Parveen's main hosh mein hoon to ghazal, and this time it was Woody Allen's latest classic.(Just before that I saw Mel Brookes' Smoking Saddles. But it was only very funny).Well, with the kid and all, watching movies in theaters is a thing of the past. Thank ananthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785767037331720646noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5496902.post-57620119903426982802011-09-03T20:34:00.005+05:302011-09-05T13:43:07.819+05:30 The Old School
Thanks to an excellent channel called DD Bharati, which, in my opinion, is about 10x better than the DD National Channel,I have been regularly catching epsiodes from Shyam Benegal's 'Bharat Ek Khoj'. The serial has several things going for it: excellent direction from Benegal, Nehru's erudite, liberal and generous view of history, and great actors who went on to become ananthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785767037331720646noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5496902.post-75685714687847071732011-07-26T18:42:00.003+05:302011-07-28T09:27:14.851+05:30 Avoid Waste An email a colleague sent at work... My take on this (and I have been following this lately) is to always get any left over food in restaurants parceled. Take it home to eat it some other time, or give it to some needy people...Germany is a highly industrialized country. It produces top brands like Benz, BMW, Siemens etc. The nuclear reactor pump is made in a small town in this ananthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785767037331720646noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5496902.post-62760013689257394122011-07-10T21:38:00.002+05:302011-07-10T21:40:00.573+05:30Damn this contentment.Oh for the madding passions,Of a rabid dog.ananthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785767037331720646noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5496902.post-7778931579311445242011-06-19T09:51:00.002+05:302011-06-19T10:19:23.203+05:30 Haiku What will it turn to,the yellow dress you'r wearing,pretty one? red? green?This, in half profile,fills me up with dreamly sleep,languid yawn of yours.ananthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785767037331720646noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5496902.post-62908929108410667552011-06-12T19:37:00.002+05:302011-06-12T20:04:12.205+05:30 Me and Uncle Pai Today I was going through some old manuscripts and correspondence from the days when I was an active writer of stories for children. I was pleasantly surprised to find myself smile and laugh at stuff I had myself written: I used to be good.I found several letters, some of acceptance, some rejection slips, from the late editor of TINKLE and the creator of Amar Chitra Katha - ananthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785767037331720646noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5496902.post-11373509755957102062011-05-24T19:11:00.004+05:302011-05-25T19:27:14.335+05:30 She...She bit him harder now,Drew a little blood,They tossed about,In the large bed,Under the high macchar-dani ,She giddy with instinctive passion,He, in a dazed half-sleep,Once almost crushing her with his weight...At length he was awake fully,And now he was after her,And she suddenly elusive,He turned on the light,Peering, spectacle-deprived,Till he found her,Gently, he neared her from ananthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03785767037331720646noreply@blogger.com4