I grew up learning Carnatic Vocal music. Learnt the Veena for a while as well. But, today most of my music listening tends to be Hindustani Classical Music. Especially Vocal music. I find the form – which is non regimented – a delight to hear. Here a typical raga – let’s say Bhairavi – sung by two different exponents from two different gharanas – and the experience will be completely different.

Generally the full form of Hindustani Classical music is often forbidding for a new comer. It seems to be a lot of “aa aa aa aa” (as my brother once told me). That is the singer exploring and expounding on the Raga. Its a pleasure and a revelation. For example, one of my favorite ragas is Miyan ki Todi and my favorite singer is Bhimsen Joshi. I have 9 long forms of this Raga sung at various concerts, at different points of times in his life. Each is a different experience for the listener, but also in the way the singer explores and weaves his magic.

A good starting point for the newbie to Hindustani classical Music is the myriad Hindi film songs composed in a number of ragas and sung by popular singers and for a variety of moods and seasons. Atleast that is the way I began. there used be this morning show on All India Radio – its still on – called sur sangam. It explores a raga. It tells you the unique aspects of the Raga. It discusses the raga with a classical singer. It plays a classical piece and it plays a film song. A great primer and a great introduction to the genre. Semi classical music – such as Thumris, classical Qawalis and classical Bhajans can also be a great way of picking up various ragas. Thumris are love songs. They look at various aspects of love – from the anticipation of meeting the lover, to the joys of being with the lover, to the throes of despair on separation. Depedning on the Gharana – the thumri can be sung as a yearning for the lover or yearning for God (the bhakti ras).

One of the most famous Thumri’s in Hindustani Classical music is Babul Mora. It was composed by Wajid Ali Shah (played by Amjad Khan in the film Shatranj Ke Khiladi) the deposed ruler of Oudh during his exile in Calcutta. It is supposed to be the longing of a woman for her maternal home. Having said that the best renditions of the song have been by men.

This is Bhimsen Joshi – live in concert at Baroda – singing Babul Mora

Part 2 is here

And, of course, the version that made it popular amongst the masses. Kundan Lal Saigal singing Babul Mora in Devdas

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I actually didn’t manage to get the camera out today. Completely busy. Started the morning by signing a contract with Film Orbit for running Jhing Chik Jhing on their site. Also interesting conversations on content. interesting possibilities.

this is one i shot yesterday

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Pakistan has sent their young and extremely photogenic foreign minister, Mrs.Hina Rabbani Khar,to India. the Indian news media – which has the collective IQ and sense of a retarted hedgehog seems to be fida on her. Completely forgetting the Bombay Blasts, 26/11 and all the other dead from all the other blasts and other terrorist strikes that have originated across the border. She arrived on the day of the Kargil victory and promplty met Kashmiri separatists in Delhi. Maybe we should let her host a dinner party for Dawood Ibrahim in Parliament grounds … after all it is important to achieve peace for our time.

sometimes i wonder, whether time makes us heal or does it make us forget. Three weeks are over, and the fourth begins

For Those Who Died

The road to justice has yet to be sighted

The Facebook forwards are dying out. So are the SMS’s. Most people have either moved on with their lives, or decided to act.  And, in the third week it is pleasently surprised to see how many people have actually decided to donate time and energy to ‘do something’.

whether that ‘something’ is ‘good’ or ‘bad’ is a matter of perspective. But, atleast many I know have come out of their comfort zone and begun discussing issues, looking at the law, looking at local self government, and interactions at the local level. The intention is there. it is the third week, and many people from the first week are still there – putting in time, energy and effort.

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Anjana, my masseuse had come over yesterday. She and i usually have interesting conversations. And, she is one of the reasons that my use of the language has increased and consequently improved is her.

She only talked about the victims at CST. She told me that she was terrified of travelling by train now. I asked her if the previous years train blasts hadn’t bothered her ? She said that they did and this has made her more fearful.

She wondered at what kind of boys will kill innocent people. While she was all for war she also admitted that the reason this happened was because we are disuited. ‘look at maharashtra’ she said ‘ vilasrao’ and ‘rr patil’ nehmi bandtat (always fight) and they let outsiders in. Raj ‘ne te tamasha kele ne baherche lokan baddal, bagha kay zala. Baheroon yevoon amhala marle.” (Raj talked about ousiders, and look what happened. outsiders came and killed us’. She said that we will never learn from history. we always fight and let the outsider attack !

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There seems to be an increased sense of paranoia. We went to see Rab Ne last week, and A mentioned after the superficial (and hence superfluous) security check that a place like that will be the next target. so many soft innocent targets. L & I shouted ‘shut up’ in synch. Having said that I had similar thoughts when I had gone to college !

this was supposed to be a longish post, till my dad pointed out that “Indian Intelligence” is an oxymoron. It is used for finding out who, in politics, sleeps with whom.

There are rumours that India has Intelligence Agencies. Their existence is possibly an Accounting Head, to show cash outflows. It is like other fictional concepts like political unity in the face of a crisis, national interest, journalistic ethics, honest politicians.

A friend called me up after this post. “not fair” he said. “Pimps are honest – they tell you what they do and how much they charge”. So i apologise to all the pimps who may be offended by that post. I didn’t mean to insult you.

Now I might as well be democratic. piss off all media companies simultaneously

There is someone in [tag]Times Now[/tag] who has lost their sense of perspective. There is a feed of the cc camera tape running. it seems unedited. what next ? a live feed of two people having sex ? NDTV is broadcasting the police briefing to the CM at the Taj and the Oberoi. ‘tyana strangulate kela’ says the cop to the CM.

[tag]Star News[/tag] has a recreation of the events of [tag] 26/11[/tag] – on a show called [tag]City 60[/tag] where the voice over artist ( i am sure that it can’t be a journalist) has voiced the piece – it cannot be a story – with the urgency of someone covering the Derby. it is followed by a piece on the mourning in Jerusalem accompanied by music out of a Ramsey horror show episode.

[tag]Sansani[/tag] is scaring the hell out of me. it is telling the terrorist or the potential armed robber how to breach mall security. Sneak into the basement 101

And there was Barkha who had a question as long as a dissertation. if you have the answer in the question then why call the guests ?

Why don’t our TV journalists let other people speak? many of them don’t know enough to be filling that much air time- though ‘woefully ill informed’ and ‘foolishly speculative’ would be more apt. Which possibly explains why the get celebrities who are more stupid and more proactive than them. Simi Garewal anyone ? Are there no people called editors in news channels anymore – people who look at content and ensure that it follows the law of the land and keep the channel from being shut down in violation of broadcasting laws.

What are channels trying to do? Goad the people to demand war or to start rioting ? That would be good for TRP’s.

And finally, which of them is telling the truth.

NDTV headlines

or

ibn

or is Pranab Mukherjee identical twins with the same name, and someone forgot to tell us?