What kind of a dancer are you? - Girls only!!

Okay this is hillarious!! Good timepass...try out! :) Quite a girly thing indeed!

What kind of dancers are you? (Girls only)

You are a Belly Dancer. You are charming inside
out, your life follows an interesting rhythem,
beautiful and smooth, you know how to be the
center of attention when you want to, you love
your friends and you can trust them on your
life. Your ideal man is the one with a sweet
witty character who understands how much
freedom is important to you.

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Song for the day

Foot tapping...mast...hummable...refreshing...

Yunhi chala, chal raahi
Yunhi chala, chal raahi
Kitni haseen hai ye duniya
Phool saare jamele, dekh phoolon ke mele
Badi rangeen hai duniya
Rum tum taana na nak tum tum taana na
Rum tum taana na nak tum tum taana na
Rum tum taana na nak tum tum taana na... bhaiya

Movie: Swades (which i havent watched yet!)
Music Director: A.R.Rahman (one of my all time favorites!)

Listen to this song here:
http://www.musicindiaonline.com/l/17/s/movie_name.7522/year.75/

I am humbled

Wading my way through the cyber world, i came across the website for 'Born into Brothels', the documentary that has won this years Academy Awards. And i must say that i am amazed...absolutely amazed and totally humbled!

It's so true that creativity exists everywhere and in the most unlikely of places! On second thoughts i should take back what i just said...there is no unlikely place for creativity!

I am ashamed that i wallow in my small mundane sorrows when there are such fine examples of the human spirit!

Do visit the site and go through the section showcasing the pictures taken by the kids...it's not worth giving a miss! And do write a few words of encouragement for the kids (email), i did...

http://kids-with-cameras.org/kidsgallery/

Daydreaming - simple pleasures of life

I want to live like one of those characters in TV soaps who don't have to work for their living. So that I can indulge in small pleasures of life.

I want to own a small cottage somewhere on a beach. It will be a small cottage, with a kitchen garden where I'll grow tomatoes, lemons, potatoes, spinach, chilies - well anything I want to basically. There'll be a nice big garden with fresh green grass and an assortment of flowers - chrysanthemums, lilies, roses, shiuli. There will be coconut trees, a mango tree perhaps...

My cottage will have huge windows that will not try to hide anything from the outside world...I'll casually drape old colourful silk saris, soft dhakai saris on my windows moving away from the restriction and structure of tailored curtains.

Cushions in bright colours and various sizes will be strewn around on white marble floor. Comfortable wicker sofas you could sink-in for those who shy away from the floor. I will perhaps throw in a charpai somewhere in the house to indulge my eccentricity! There will be my didgeridoo and emu-caller standing tall in a corner giving company to each other, keeping an eye on the goings-on around them.

Spaces and rooms will flow into each other like rivers. Fluidity, interspersed with brief obstructions and structurality will mimic the imperfections and beauty of life itself.

The walls will be adorned by my paintings. Huge canvases on which colours will make love, play with each other, unabashedly...

A studio of my own housing an old rickety easel, canvases lying here and there, a colour palette clothed in dry crusty paint, textured by scraggy bristles of my brushes. A potter's-wheel lying in one corner of the room; a mound of wet mud waiting to be brought to life with the caress of my fingers. A shelf full of books to satiate my craving for words. A piano and a guitar and a stack of papers with musical notes will complete my creative sanctuary.

The bedroom will be simple, beautiful and sensual...soft muslins, cottons, scented sheets, scented candles, an assortment of wind-chimes to put me to sleep with their light tinkling music on cool breezy nights, a wooden four-poster bed in dark maghony, draped in fine white muslin...large windows...cool floor...soft feathered pillows...bamboo lampshades and some more candles...

Somewhere in the house will be this very old gramophone with its rotating handle, which my grandfather owned. An easy-chair my grandfather used to sit on till his last days.

My kitchen will be earthy, somewhat old fashioned. No state-of-the-art electric chimney for me, I want to relish the aromas wafting through air when I cook...it will remind me of my mother and her cooking… A collection of fine wine and home-grown herbs in small pots will make it so much more charming and warm.

My family and friends and their presence will give it warmth and make my cottage a home…my dream home. The simple pleasures of life...

Roz Roz aankhon tale - Memories revisited

For some reason i felt like listening to old hindi music today - the bollywood variety...and i don't know why but this song by R.D.Burman - 'Roz Roz aankhon tale' kept buzzing in my mind. But i had no clue which movie it was from...so i did what i always do when in need of information - i google - solution to all my queries, the inquisitives of the world will vouch for it! ...so i googled and voila! - Roz Roz aankhon tale - music director R.D.Burman, movie: Jeeva (Jeeva!! whatever is that!! never heard of it!).

Logged onto musicindiaonline and started listening to Roz Roz... and all these memories and emotions came rushing in...memories of a distant past when everything seemed rosy, bubbly and beautiful.

The first time i heard this song was when i had just started my first job - at NIIT. I was young. Talented(or so i thought!). Had just fallen-in-love resulting in a state of being inexplicable in words! And like most youngsters was into music and singing BIG-TIME!! Amongst my friends was this guy much senior to me but shared my taste in bollywood music - was a RD.Burman fan to be precise. And it was he who first introduced me to this song. I was surprised that i hadn't heard of it since i was a big RD fan...but i loved it from the moment i heard.

Perhaps because of the state of 'love' that i was in at that point or for the lyrics especially the first few lines...
Roz Roz aankhon tale, Ek hi sapna chale, raat bhar kaajal jale, aankh mein jis tarah khwaab ka dia jale...
this song touched me like nothing else.

And when i heard these words again they brought back memories of long endless nights of long endless conversations on the phone, sleepless nights dreaming with your eyes open (raat bhar kaajal jale...), a longing which is so pure and yet so incomprehensible. What is it about love that makes people do seemingly stupid things with so much sincerety and passion...

This song also brought back memories of days when we would record audio cassettes for each other with our favourite songs...i remember telling him about this song that i had heard and the next thing i get from him is this collection of beautiful songs that he cared to remember were my favourites in a cassette...written in his lovely handwriting on the cover was 'A's Favourites'. I still have that cassette with me. I don't play it anymore. I don't have a cassette player anymore...everything is in CDs and DVDs. But i will always keep it, as a souvenir of the days when i was young...and in-love.

If only one could capture these chunks and moments of life in a cassette for eternity and replay them once in a while...to feel alive.

For anyone who listens to songs online, check this site out. It has an awesome collection of indian music you can listen to. http://www.musicindiaonline.com/

Thunderstorms and mellow winter sun

I savor...

The afternoon mellow sun in winters caressing my face...soft, warm and gentle in it's embrace.

Thunderstorms...lightening, strong winds touch my face, dance through my hair. Rain lashing out on the window pane, pitter-patter on tin roofs.

Walking barefoot on dewy fresh green grass.

Wandering through the morning mist of the hills...sinewy paths of tea-gardens.

The music of the ocean, soft silky sand, rustle of the palm leaves.

Sleeping under a starlit night sky. Drape it around like a blanket...soaking in the beauty of solitude and silence.
_______________________________________________

Much of my craving for nature, beauty, sights and sounds are based on my childhood experiences i reckon. I am attached to my past and i try to cling onto the beautiful sights and sounds and crave for those long lost serene moments when life was without complications...when life was relatively innocent.

My earliest memories would be that of North Bengal. The tea gardens, train chugging along - windows open to the lush greenery. The cobbled walkway to someones bunglow...i can't remember whose...

I remember Bhutan, Pungshilling...teesta with water so clear you could see pure white stones on the river bed. My tricycle...shambhu the boy who used to work with us - who took me out on my tricycle every evening...Vague memories of the restaurant we used have rosomalais from.

The first taste and sight of snow when we moved to Tsimalekha...Huge windows with breathtaking views of hills...the tin roof, Bukharis (Bhutanese version of room heaters!)...Bhutan was one of the best time of my childhood...though i was quite young at the time i have quite a number of memories of Bhutan...The palace at Thimpu, Paro....beautiful mountains...friends collecting wild strawberries, wild flowers...

Even to this day i have dreams of Phungshilling now and then...the winding roads and small bhutanese cottages. I would keep walking on these roads...neverending - never knowing where I'm heading...

I would like to revisit all these old places once before i die and soak-in the changes...I feel I'm an old soul who has preserved centuries of feelings and memories inside and not being able to let go. I would like to revisit and let go...let go off everything in the past and be excused from this cycle of birth-rebirth and endless burden...

Kandisa

Someone gifted me this CD on my recent visit to India and i have been hooked onto it ever since. Kandisa is a brilliant album by the rock group Indian Ocean.

Quite honestly i am not much aware of the rock scene in india much of which has been over powered and dominated by bollywood music, quite unfairly so. If not for the overpowering presence of hindi film music, the alternative music scene would have flourished as it has been the case with our neighbours.

But coming back to the subject, this album is awesome...this is of course a personal opinion. What i liked about this album is that it doesn't seem forced or pretentious. There is this soul enriching quality to it. The music grows on you, the hymns - shlokas are not aimlesslessly scattered around to impress...hence the unpretentious feeling that one gets from it. The vocals and the intruments blend into each other perfectly.

My favourite track is of course 'Kandisa' which we are told is based on a Syrian Catholic hymn in the ancient language Armaic, interspersed with vocals in hindustani classical and the blending is flawless. I also like the track 'Leaving Home'.

It's great to come across such good work from the non-film section of the indian music scene or perhaps i have been totally out of touch in which case i shall have to make amends and be more aware of the music scene back home!