On a temperamental music player

Like a billion other people on this planet, I've been living a nightmare for close to a month now, waking up every morning in terror, wondering what new names I'll hear today. The weekends have been the hardest, because all I have then is my constant doomscrolling. For the most part, workdays have been easier, because work is a distraction. But yesterday was tougher than usual, and I wrote a whole depressing post about it, and then decided I'm not ready to send it out into the world yet. So it's sitting in my drafts, hoping to see the light of day some months down the line.

So let's talk about something a little more cheerful, 'kay?

We gifted Baba a Bose radio/CD player for his 50th birthday. Well, I say we, but it was Mamma really. And at some point during the past decade that I've been gone, that went kaput, and they bought a new one. Except, as I discovered during my sojourn last year, this new one has a bit of a personality. 

It took me a while to realise that it wasn't my parents turning it on everyday at a very high volume, to a radio channel none of us listen to. It came on randomly everyday at the same time, all by itself, blaring loudly. If the radio happened to be on, and you were listening to a different channel, it would actually switch to whatever that infernal preset channel was. So I decided* to fix it. Since no one knew where the user manual was, I turned to Joi Baba Googlenath, and figured out how to change the alarm settings.

My parents like listening to the English music shows that still come on AIR FM Rainbow** at 12 pm and 6pm, so I went in and set alarms for it to come on everyday at those times, at a far more reasonable volume. Everyone was happy, and I actually won*** Daughter of the Year for a change.

Cut to six months later.

One of my coping mechanisms for the past month has been to have a daily call with the parents, instead of our usual 2-3 times a week. Depending on my meeting schedule (and the father's bridge calendar obvs), I call them either at 8am while making my chai, or at lunch time. And for a few days running, I was getting irritated at how rude they were being, turning on the TV at abnormally loud levels while I'm on the phone with them. 

As it turns out, they were doing no such thing. Their temperamental Bose system took advantage of my departure to change the alarm settings all by itself, and has gone back to turning on at a strange time at a strange volume on a strange channel. And since I'm not there to fix it again, my parents' new approach is to wait till a minute before it comes on, and call out to each other - "the radio's about to come on! go stand near it so you can turn it off!"

Be amused by the little things you guys, because the next time I'm home, I'm going to have to Google how to fix the damn alarm settings all over again.

* Mayyyyyybe less "decided to", and more "was prodded into"

** No, YOU try typing, saying or thinking AIR FM Rainbow without that blessed jingle playing in your head

*** versus just running unopposed

On audio cassettes and lipsticks

I'm going to say something that I've never admitted to anyone, and I need you to not laugh at this. Seriously.

So when I was a kid, I used to listen to most of my music through audio cassettes, like most Indian kids did in the 90s did. Only, I'd keep dropping them - much like I do with my phone these days - and breaking the cassette covers. SO I used to think that it would be an excellent idea to grow up and start a company that made spare covers for audio cassettes.*

I said don't laugh.

AnyWAY. Can someone do something like this for lipsticks? Various brands, but Revlon in particular? My lipstick covers keep breaking (I can't figure out how), and then I can't carry them in my jeans pockets.

Okthxbye.

*I also considered jute bags at one point. No idea why. Probably the more lasting idea though.

Moods and music

If you hit play on Track 6 of the Indian Ocean CD that is perpetually in my car's music system as you leave my apartment in the morning, and head to the work place, if you time it just right - and not get stuck behind idiot Texas drivers - you'll reach the highway just around the tenth minute mark. And there is no greater pleasure than zooming down a Texas highway with the remaining three minutes of Charkha coming out of the speakers. And then just as you get off the highway, the track ends and Tandanu comes on, and that does me very nicely for the remaining ten minutes of my commute.

It's unusual for me to be this impacted by a track like this. For me, it's usually the words of a song that I pay more attention to. And it's the words that usually determine which song will suit what mood I'm in.

Certain songs suit certain moods. Certain songs bring on certain moods. Charkha is what I play in the car when I need to just listen, and not think about anything. 

When I'm homesick, and wondering why I live half a world away from friends and family, there's a verse in Kabira that jumps out at me:

Kaisee teri khudgarzee
Na dhoop chune na chhaanv
Kaisee teri khudgarzee
Kisi thaur tike na paanv
Ban liyaa apnaa paighambar
Tar liyaa tu saat samandar
Phir bhee sookhaa mann ke andar
Kyoon reh gaya

How's this selfishness of yours,
that you don't take the sun, nor take the shade..
How's this selfishness of yours,
that your feet don't stay anywhere..
You've tried being your own god,
and crossed all seven seas,
Still, there is a draught within your heart,
Why is it so..

When I do go back home for visits, and there's no pitter patter of paws on the floors, or no wagging tail coming to greet me, it still feels weird. And this song comes to mind, because of one line:

Sab kuchh wahi hai, par kuchh kami hai
Teri aahatein nahin hain

everything is the same, but something is missing..
the sound of your footsteps isn't there..

Extremely corny, I know, but ¯\(ツ)/¯

But the easiest choices are when I'm stressed, and need something to smash it out of me. And again, are completely unrelated to the lyrics. When I was in high school, it used to be Celine Dion belting out Power of love. Over the past few years, it's been two songs from Amit Trivedi's Season 2 episode of Coke Studio - Bari Bari and Badri Badariyan.

I heard these two songs for the first time around the time I was moving to London for two months, in early 2013. And halfway through my stay there, I had got a call telling me the princess may not be with us much longer. I started listening to these two songs on loop around then, and even now, three years later, they're what I turn to when I want to get away from the world.

On songs that stay with you

I listened to a lot of Asha Bhonsle's songs growing up. Her life caught my interest me too - the nuggets of gossip gleaned from overheard parental conversation and whatever I read/saw in pre-Internet days about her seemed fascinating.

One of my favourite songs by her is actually a duet - a duet with her elder sister, Lata Mangeshkar. I always preferred the younger sister to the elder, but something about this song played so beautifully every time I heard it.

And for some reason, I think of it every time I hear another song, another duet, that came out (relatively) a few years ago. A duet between Sunidhi Chauhan and Shreya Ghoshal. I don't what it is about this song that reminds me of that one, except perhaps the fact that you'd never think these two voices would play so beautifully together. Especially since, at the time this song came out, the two singers were on such different paths as singers - one seemed to get all the "western sounding" songs, one all the more "classical" songs. But then this song came out and blew me away.

NB: It's annoying me tremendously that I can't find the complete video for Imaan ka Asar on youtube, so if anyone finds it, please direct it my way. Thank you kindly.

The day the Sur died

If you haven't seen the "new" version of Mile Sur Mera Tumhara, you clearly haven't been on twitter or Facebook all day. Both sites have been full of updates lambasting Zoom's attempt to modernise the classic we grew up watching on DD 1 on a regular basis.

I sat through it, all 16-and-a-half freaking minutes of it (which is nearly thrice as long as the original), and have the following thoughts on it:

1. As I said on twitter, in the original one, you felt you were watching Indians sing about their country. In this one, you never, for one second, are allowed to forget that these are the stars of Bollywood you're watching. I mean, did anyone look at Priyanka Chopra in that suit with the kids and think, "awww, look how sweet and loving she is"?!? And what the heck were Shahid and Deepika doing?!?
2. Some of the acts were truly cringe-worthy. I love Aamir Khan, but his whole act with the kids was totally uncool. And SRK at the end, with his trademark spreading arms out. Really? What was this, a promo for your next movie?
3. The original had mixed India's two passions, movies and cricket. This one, being made by Zoom, naturally focussed on move stars and movie stars alone (with a few musicians thrown in for fun). For some reason, however, they decided to then also throw in a few sportspersons at the end, all people who've made it to the papers in recent times. Firstly, the way it was shown seemed utterly patronizing and there-for-the-heck-of-it. Secondly, and interestingly, not one from cricket. What happened, was Lalit Modi not entertaining their calls?
4. The singing, oh, the singing. The original had Lata Mangeshkar's gorgeous voice for all the actresses. I know she's not singing anymore, but really, could they have at least tried to match the singer to the face? And didn't someone tell Shiamak Davar years ago that he should never, ever sing in public again?
   
5. The original had managed to show glimpses of India, the country. This simply couldn't. This was nothing but a bunch of actors being taken to a bunch of sceninc spots, and asked to smile at the camera.

This is yet one more reason why I have no respect for the TOI group.

For some more excellent points on why this new version is such a disaster, you may read the tweets put up by @mojorojo. (Update: He's put them all in one place here, so you may just head there.)

And now, for your viewing pleasure, the old:



And the new:



Tell me you didn't feel like a little piece of your childhood died.

(PS: A modified version of this post was also published on Desicritics.)

The greatest love of all...

...to quote Whitney Houston (well, not her exactly, but she sang the version of the song I have, so we'll just go with that) is learning to love yourself.

I've never been particularly fond of myself, but I have now decided I must take baby steps towards being more positively inclined towards myself. And valentine's Day having ended less than two hours ago, it seemed like the appropriate time to blog about it.

The first step was achieved some weeks back, when I finally accepted that almost everyone I know is right: I do have gorgeous hair. It's black, straight, and has grown to a very nice length, thank you. (I could also tell you what I don't like about it, but we'll not go there; we're being positive here.)

I insert too many side comments during my posts.

Less self-criticism should probably be the next baby step no?

Happy Independence Day!

Our National Anthem is supposed to be 52 seconds long, thank you very much.

Don't get me wrong. I admire A. R. Rahman tremendously. I think he's a brilliant music composer (although he has lost his touch in recent years). Rang De Basanti was one of the most brilliant movie soundtracks ever - I still get goosebumps when I hear Khoon Chala. And I loved what he did with Vande Mataram ten years ago.

But I do wish he'd left our National Anthem alone. The idea's great, and the kind of lineup of singers he's got is mindblowing (although, admittedly, I don't know enough about most of them). However, I happen to belong to that breed of people who like to stand up every time the Anthem is played, if not sing along. And it's really quite annoying to see these videos played on television every few minutes, in the middle of whichever weird show that I might be watching at the time.

*sigh* I tend to get emotional around Independence Day.

But take a look... what do you think?