Joie De Vivre

Saying that death is the essentiality is an utterly meaningless account of life. The essence of life is how you lived it, not how it culminates. Passion, fervour, intensity, zest, ecstasy. I want to associate these words with my life. Don't want to resort to numbness. I have eternity to be detached and indifferent. After death. Not now.
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The pinnacle of success and the crushing ignominious anonymity. That's the life of an artiste. These two videos triggered immediate sadness and smiles.

C. Ramchandra...People know him for his music, but he sang a lot of his songs. It's well known that he has had classical training, but for me that wasn't so obvious. He always sounded tentative. But listen to him in this video (which was 70s or early 80s) and the training is pretty obvious! Liked his voice in this youtube video much better than the original songs. The man has the chops even in his old age. Listen to the कणस्वर…the slight touch of a स्वर closeby to embellish the main स्वर...was simply amazed by his effortlessness and solid notes. And of course, his honesty.

This one is reminiscing the old times, revisiting भूले बिसरे गीत and a short and sweet back-and-forth banter between two oldies.

:(

How much more alone can I be?
Taunting, I ask this myself.
But didn't realise that I could break
And reduce from one to less and less.

Why

In science, we read fancy titles like 'causes and consequences of so and so..'.

Some people are more interested in why something has happened. Others are more interested in finding out the course of things thereafter now that that something has happened.

The consequence part allows you to find solutions on the things that have happened. They lead us to think about the future course of action.

The cause part leads us to trace steps that have led to an incident.

I incline more towards the causes part. So, for example, if climate change makes a species abundant, and another species rare, someone may want to investigate what happens thereafter. Does this mean the first species spreads and the second species goes extinct and if yes, how soon, spread by how much?, etc.

My response is mostly why are there such differences between the two species? What is it that makes the first species more resilient and the second more fragile?

This is in parts because of the training I received during PhD where we answered the questions pertaining to causes more than the consequences. We answered the 'why' questions more than 'so..now what'?

But this is also a manifestation of my basic nature. If I think about it, everything I plan is unplanned. I go by gut as far as my future is concerned. But once the ball is set to roll, it's fun to think, 'why am I doing it?' It is not the result of unsureness which gives rise to lot of whys too. This why is different. For example, going back to Auroville after PhD was a whim, and I did it without any plan. But for days together then, and even now, I think 'why did I go there?'. The answer could be as simple as because I liked it the first time and wanted to be there again, but obviously there are more layers to that answer, and it's fun to see within yourself, within others and the situation that paves the path for you. Analysis of a process make the hidden patterns to emerge, from which comes the insight which can impact the future. Or not.

So..I like the 'why' questions. I wonder why.

Blessing in Disguise

A blog and a scientific paper can easily occupy the polar opposite seats in the spectrum of anything that's ever been written. While blogs are personal and imaginative, manuscripts are completely devoid of any literary juice. The way that papers are being written today is to avoid subjectivity, unnecessary elaboration and repetition, and vagueness. Creative writing can easily fall in the scientific framework. There is only one problem. You can dare, but there is every possibility that an editor or a reviewer will ask you to modify if you take even a slight deviation from the detached dryness that's expected of a scientific manuscript. Hell, I have done it myself while reviewing others' work, so I can't expect anything more.

However, writing up my own work? That's a different story. I always have to rewrite all my manuscripts before I pass it on to my co-authors coz I write everything in a very popular style. Whenever I revisit the manuscripts for the second draft, I cringe at the thought of what would happen if ever some foreign eyes were to befall on this populist piece of (interesting) shit.

At such times, I miss blogging the most, and return to it with renewed zeal. Blogging helps me to vent, even in this sphere of life. It's all for good eventually, because the more there are of the drycleaned manuscripts (and looks like it is just gonna increase more and more), more there will be of the blogs too.

Kyon

My cover version of Kyon..

Youtube

Kyon from Barfi has been a favourite since it came out in September 2012. It is brilliantly picturised, acted and orchestrated, but best are the lyrics. Love Neelesh Misra. I believe he debuted with Jaadu Hai Nasha Hai and Chalo Tumko Lekar Chalen from Jism (2003), and has been writing some simple but meaningful lyrics ever since with songs such as Maine Dil Se Kaha (Rog 2005), Lamha Lamha (Gangster 2006), Khwahinshon Se (Holiday 2006), Abhi Kuchh Dinon Se (Dil To Bachcha Hai Ji), and occasional candyfloss numbers like Bolo Na Tum Zara (Fight Club 2006).

Lyrics and music rarely act synergistically these days, don't you think? Sometimes lyrics are powerful and the music ordinary, and sometimes the vice versa is true. And sometimes even when both are good, one of them is more overpowering, shadowing the other.

This song however, felt like a team effort between a lyricist, music director and singers. This is Pritam's best album since Life..In A Metro (2007). Sunidhi rarely sings low notes these days, so I liked it how Pritam did a division of labour here, giving the lower notes and the stanza to Sunidhi, and the upper notes of the stanza and the beginning verse to Papon. Had never heard of Papon, let alone his music, and his raspy voice is unique.

PS. Coming back to the lyrics, the first few lines read as if thy are written by Swanand Kirkire with words like 'baanware', 'almast', 'sirphire' 'luke huye'..these are all trademark Swanand Kirkire words. Can it be coincidence that he wrote most of the other songs in the soundtrack? The later lines however, are unlike SK's. 'Lafz', 'harf', I haven't heard these in SK's songs.