AR Rahman - Kadal - Elay Keechan

A few days back, i got an email alert from my friend at work, another ARR fan, who said that another single from Kadal is out. Soon i was on youtube, and falling for this new single - Elay Keechan.
Just imagine a fisher-folk song that is tuned to sound country. Not many sounds here, other than stringing guitar or banjo (something tighter than the guitar, but not as high as a banjo). And a chorus to hum in the background. Some clapping. And lo and behold you have a song to showcase the lives of fisherfolk in the movie.

Only in true ARR style, he takes a set of pure tamizh lyrics, and tunes into something out of the ordinary. The lyrics are by Karky, Vairamuthu's son, some fantastic lines there. My favourite is "Vaa Le, Konda Le, Kattumaram konda Le, Gundu meena alli vara konda le". Another line goes "Unakaaga valaiyonu valaiyonu virichirukkaen, na thavam irukken, nee vizhuvenu, velakkena uthikkitu muzhichu irukken na ara kirukaen". I guess it is country music after all, and so germane.

But the highlight i think is his rendition of the song. ARR has time and again shown he is quite a singer and i think that comes from his passion for music. He has picked an apt song to lend his voice to, and taken the entire composition to a different level. He adds just the amount of twists and turns in the tune and to his singing, so keeps the song's tone at a tempered plane. So its not just a routine ho-hum (up/down), but an interesting mix. So you tap your feet constantly, at varying pace, yet dont have to break a leg.

AR Rahman - Kadal - Nenjukulle

This is the latest from AR Rahman (ARR as many have begun to refer to him). This is the version he played on the recent show for MTV Unplugged, so the song in the movie album, may be subtly different. Cant wait for the album. This song is for the movie, Kadal, the up and coming movie being directed by Mani Ratnam. An Amazing start and composition, and high point as i recently noted on twitter, the tamizh (unlike many people who say tamil), pronunciation was high point. Hats off to the singer, Shakthisree Gopalan, too.

I have begun my ode to ARR for my other blog. Hope to find time to finish my writing. But in short, all i have to say is "Somewhere there is a God".

I can wait for a few weeks, since i am still listening to Jab Tak Hai Jaan. So cant have this album releasing soon.

MMS Advise to Beni Prasad Verma

So, while MMS ji keeps his mum most, if not, all the time; he does offer words to wisdom to his corruption ridden crew of the UPA.

The above is Ninan's view of MMS' advise to the Horrible Steal Minister, as appeared in the Times of India on Oct 16th 2012.

Hamari Ganga Maili

Sad news indeed to know that we humans, particularly, us Indians, have managed to transform a holy and pristine life giver, into a cesspool that is today believed to cause life threatening diseases.

I had an opportunity, or a near one, recently to visit the river Ganga or its banks to say more appropriately. My recent trip to Mussoorie, allowed us to take a trip to Rishikesh. But while i visited the temple town, i didnt get the opportunity to actually bathe or even touch the water from the river. It was put off, because the next day's trip to Haridwar potentially offered better scope and access. Unfortunately that was never to happen.

Disappointed to the core, that i had come all this way, north, and didnt make the best of the opportunity. I do hope to make the trip again someday. Maybe visit the actual source, as i would other spots along the Ganga.
Yet, i still may shudder, a bit, just thinking of bathing or drinking the water. Even at Rishikesh, which was upstream the water was clouded - brownish with soil, i would assume.
I have never seen Haridwar personally, but the pictures on the internet are not very pleasing.  So, even if i had visited, i may have come back disappointed.
Another sad fact is that, the billion plus Indians are very good and devout enough to make just about anything or everything holy, but we are equally or more bankrupt and indigent when it comes to upkeep and cleanliness.

I do hope we act now. Save the Ganga. Let it remain as pristine and divine, like we describe it in our scriptures. Let it remain chaste and immaculate like we believe in our minds. And blessed and faithful like we hold in our prayers.
  
 

Things better than Free Speech

There are quite few things that are more important than free speech. Here is a list of things i think are more important to average citizens, than the free speech. And i also think there needs to be big difference between"Freedom to Speak" and "Free Speech"

Free & Fair Elections	Free or Reasonably priced food
Free Responsible Press	Free Primary Health
Free impartial Judiciary	Freedom to move

What are the limits of free speech ? If my freedom ends where your nose begins, then where does free speech, begin and end ? My tongue ?

Things better than Free Speech

There are quite few things that are more important than free speech. Here is a list of things i think are more important to average citizens, than the free speech. And i also think there needs to be big difference between"Freedom to Speak" and "Free Speech"

Free & Fair Elections	Free or Reasonably priced food
Free Responsible Press	Free Primary Health
Free impartial Judiciary	Freedom to move

What are the limits of free speech ? If my freedom ends where your nose begins, then where does free speech, begin and end ? My tongue ?

Amul's tribute to Dr. V Kurien

 

Milkman of India

Latest MMS Scandal

Our MMS is caught in the middle of one of biggest scandals in the history of our country, and his reaction has only been a little more than an average speech impaired person. I guess that is doing gross injustice to the speech impaired. The cartoon below does a fantastic imitation of his responses to the various scandals rocking the nation.

And now apparently they want The Washington Post to apologize for their article on MMS and his mystical silence. And they had a perfect picture on their website, to illustrate his poise and silence. This is like one of those 'MasterCard Priceless' moments.

From above the clouds

This post has been delayed for sometime. Interesting, that i manage to jump off a plane one weekend, and then get caught up in a whirlwind of activity at the work front. Both are good and one shouldn't be complaining.

A friend of mine suggested i join him and other friends, to check-off a typical bucket list activity. This has been on my list for a long time, but time, energy and will were always a little deficient. There, apparently, is a lot of fun in making spur of the moment decisions. This was one.

The jump itself was monumental. The guys at Skydive Capitol City, made it seem like everyday chore. The most scariest thing was the site itself, which looked like a barnyard. It was, and the plane took off from a cleared grass patch in the middle of the huge farm, which was the Warrenton, VA airport complex. All said and done, it soon turned out to be inconsequential.

Few minutes of plain ride, till we hit the required altitude at about 10,000 feet. And then it was the moment i was waiting for. A split second of uncertainty as the instructor (Dimitrije) made the move to the exit, and we were off. Exhilaration, was clearly defined over the next few seconds, as we fell down to the earth. I later found out that my face is filled with a lot of extra skin and flab. We wont discuss that further here. The chute opened shortly and then it seemed like it was just another day - cruising slowly down the interstate from the clouds to the land below. The landing was soft, as soft as it can get on a bonny backside. My trousers later needed some extra special cleaning to get all the grassy-mud out.

Will i do this again? Sure. Why not ? Then again, maybe i should rather go climb Everest.

Power outage @ VA

An hour or two of thunderstorm late night on friday, knocked the living daylights out of the DC metro area. The northern VA area where i live, we lost power at around 10:30pm on Friday. Its past 10:30 am on Sunday morning, 36hrs later, we are still out of power.
The pic below is from Panera Bread store in Tysons Corner, my temporary home. Also home to a long line of people, who are trying to get some food, an electric outlet to charge the phones and other essential devices and also surf the internet, the only social life many of us seem to have these days.

I observed a peculiar facet of us, human beings. At first, all i wanted was power (electricity) so i could get some food to eat and hot water to bathe and clean. When i had access to this, from a friends house, i was peeved that there was no internet and or cable. Am sure if cable or internet was available, i might complain that it was slow or there was nothing good on it. Somewhere in the middle of all this, i also lost all my battery charge on my cell phone. Guess how depressed and depraved i should have been.

Men (human beings), you cant have it and you cant have it.