HAPPY MUSICAL NEW YEAR...

Every year that is past, has 2 dimensions to it. 1) One year is gone from our life  2) and the next year is of hope. What is gone can never come back but what can travel with us is the experience that we gained and rich moments that we cherished. It is all up to us on what and how much we make out from the year that is passed. Many a learning happened to know and understand life better. So much richer was the experience that i could perceive failure in success as nothing is permanent , and also success in failure as everything changes for the good. Even if the obvious is stated, the experience of wisdom is always new, good and useful.

The best personal joy in the year 2011 was listening to Rock star music and watching the movie twice. The music is something which is indescribable as every time i heard to the rock star music,  it took me to a very personal and reverential experience. The voices, the sounds, the orchestration, the feel, the texture , the tone, the  mood and just about everything was so perfect, so different and so ahead of times that, if someone liked it, then it can only be maddening and extremely fulfilling. The one song that can be talked, detailed and every music lover has to listen without fail from the movie is HAWA HAWA... This is a brilliant piece and perfectly justifies the belief and adage that music has no boundaries.

The beauty about this song comes from the deadly combination of  Rehman, Irshad kamil and Mohit chauhan. An out of the world amalgamation of Music , Lyrics, singing and orchestration.  It’s simply an extremely brilliant piece of music that will rest in your soul and makes the soul reverberate with joy and dance. The song seems to have the European flavour of instrumentation and back vocals but gently reminds us of the beautiful era of Raj kapoor songs,  with doses of Shanker jaikishan’s touch. It does not stop there. It also seems like having the traces of Naushad, that near to heart beat sounds of O.P. nayyar, subtleties of R.D. Burman and S. Rajeshwar Rao use of violins and Meastro Ilayaraja’s oriental mix. In one expression, its the best of most music that we heard. There is pain, there is joy, there is celebration and there is life perse in the song.

I think hundreds of times as how this song could have be thought of, developed, how did the lyrics fit in? How was the singing? How was the initial mix and what processes it went thru for the final mix. Just can’t stop wondering on the making of the song. Wish the making of the song was shot. It will not be an exaggeration to state that, if one were there from the beginning of the song, till the end, it would be like a great education on music for them. Every single member associated with the song has to be saluted as every time i listen to the song, i discover either the new sound, new expression or the new meaning.

Undoubtedly listening to this song has been the greatest moments this year, and watching the movie too matched this happiness and excitement. Apart from this, there were regular doses of all that life has to offer.. ...Success, failure, happiness, pain, learning, unlearning, surprises, shocks, disappointments, and heart burns etc. But the experience of listening to thi song will remain unique forever. No Doubt Rehman is the manifestation of god’s greatest creativity and so he is the messiah, he is the gods special child. All numbers from Rock star are special for its unique special quality but this Hawa Hawa need to be experienced. Not in a hurry, not to pass judgements but with a serene mind in a tranquil place where the only activity has be listening to music and 3 times in a row at least.

One such experience is enough for the year and expecting many more such in the coming year. Happy new year to all, especially music lovers as what else can be a best food, medicine, companion, soul mate than the music especially the one that Rehman creates.. He has a knack and the gift to bring the best from all that is best and gives us the final product. Rehman i salute you million times.

TELEPHONE DHWANILA NAVVE DAANA

This title comes from the very popular song from Bharateeyudu and a very awesome composition from musical god. Just this morning, i was happy to see one GHMC sweeper lady pulling out mobile from her saree pallu and answering the call. My happiness was short lived as it was not the smile but the wrinkle on the face and worry that caught my attention when she received the call. I did not want to imagine that there is some problem with her life as too much empathy all the time can be extremely killing especially on a Sunday morning. Instead i kept thinking again about Graham bell invention and how that is next only to the breath we take in life.

Just went little down the memory lane when the mohan and ravi photo studio (prestigious) in koti , Hyderabad had the dummy telephone and it was a great kick and pleasure to hold them , pretend to talk and get the photo taken. Telephone in 70’s was like what BMW is now and probably BMW is more easily gettable for many these days. In our entire class of about 300 students ( all sections included) there was just one phone at home. One had to take a permission to call from home to school. It was mandatory for parents to come however rich or famous they may be. The people who had the key for any telephone in any office were the most powerful guys. Or else one had to go to post offices to make a call or trunk call ( do we remember this) . The postman would act like one very powerful person there and we obviously had to wait till he finished his work. Then one day, i walked up to one sweet cum chat place called Agra in Koti and took money of about 2 rupees( could watch movie easily in so much money those days in 1978) and went and called my dad to his office. His first reaction was why did i call and second reaction was.. put down the phone and don’t waste the money.

Then one or two people would have phone connections in the entire colony and the waiting for the connection of phone was like 7 years and needed central minister recommendation for emergency lines. Oops... can’t believe. Public phones came only during late 80’s and became rampant in early 90’s. It was not an in thing to share the phone numbers also. It was a huge effort to go on cycle for 2 kilometres and choose some shop which will allow making calls for huge expenditure if we had to talk to any of our girl class mates. We could not talk for more than 5 minutes as we were not allowed to and the cost also was high. I can’t forget the time in 1984 when there was some curfew and my brother was stuck in a hotel as he was working over there. We had to go to my friend’s place, explain the situation and with great difficulty, were allowed to talk to my brother. It was a huge favour of the month for us.

The coming of the public booths was a big revolution and privacy found a new meaning, communication saw a new dimension, and employment opportunities, business opportunities came about.  We can keep talking so much about what that happened after the coming of public booths.. STD calls became cheaper and slowly written communication started taking a beating. Then came the pager, around 1993-95 and it died the fastest death among all technologies because of the shortest gap between pager and cellular phone launch. By then cordless phones and slick phones became the trend.

The charges for incoming discouraged people from buying cell phones and the coming of reliance revolution and free incoming just threw open the technology to the winds. And the changes kept happening every month and in every service provider. Now the changes happen by the hour and cell phone is no more a communication device but is a life style and most dependable companion for multiple and varied needs. Applications, i phones, BBM’s , Androids, 3 G’s etc etc has seeped into the cultural context and psyche’s of human beings.

For the generation born in the late 60’s and early 70’s, we will never stop wondering about this graham bell invention which is the key for so much more allied and far fetching technological revolutions in the world. IF someone does not the device, service,.affordability will be the last of the reasons for that. It will either be having a choice not to have it or too important a person that he or she can afford not to have it. For grusha’s sake, don’t want to get into gyan or sentimentality or cynicism but most often, i don’t see people enjoying talking on the phone.. There is a tension or a fight or a deal or a miss.. This can’t happen. Technology is respected when its put to positive use only. Fight in person and not on mobile. Sms positive things and settle scores when we meet. Even the bad and good news with little effort can be said in person. Let me at least have the wishful thinking.

Thanks sweeper lady for provoking me with so much of thinking.  And yes, we should all laugh like the telephone dhwani mentioned in that song from bharateeyudu.. inanimate can have such dhwani and why not us??? ha ha ha

PAID TO SMILE

                                            

                                             PAID TO SMILE

We have all heard and known the positive impact of a smile on our health. Some 60 odd muscles is said to be relaxing every time we smile. Hence it has to be understood that, our body is designed to be relaxed or else we invite illness or disease. So what stops us from doing what the body needs and can be done easily? The building of habit has to be inculcated by the active involvement of the mind. So the next question is what stops our mind from making this a habit? We condition our mind to do several things which are both negative and positive and mind acts on our training from what we learn and these are called our traits, mindsets, behaviour, attitude etc.  So we learn and acquire habits and make our mind reflect this. So, the key is what inputs we keep giving our mind? In other words, we consciously tell our mind not to smile, not to relax, and instead we ask our prime organ and entity to feel sad, depressed, tense, worry etc. It’s not anything or anybody that causes pain, but we ourselves are doing this damage and not anyone else. For all the pain or pleasure, tension or happiness, we are alone responsible for ourselves.

I remember a song composed by biddu, the music director for a movie called Star in which Kumar gaurav son of Rajendra kumar made a debut. The songs goes like this..  Teri zindagi mein yoo tho kabhi dard aayenge tho muskuraayeja.. It was wow for those times and it’s an amazing philosophy for any time. All it says is , only the smile can chase away the pain. I also recollect , the song “it’s gonna be easy now by Dan Seals , where he says, the problems will never go away and it only manifests in various forms as long as the mind is active. But we need to rationalize and tell ourselves that the earlier problem was worse or someone else is suffering more than us. Obviously i can’t feel deprived looking at film stars or big businessmen houses. I need to look at the push cart vendors, watchmen, servant maids and majority of the deprived sections and feel happy that i have at least a shelter to sleep and protect me from varying climates. Smile is all that is positive, it’s an acknowledgment, it’s the recognition, it’s the affirmation, it’s the symbol and it’s everything that makes our health and being very well and good.

All of us have read, thought, understood, and known the effects of smile and what it means to smile and how we can live on this medicine, this nectar of life and most importantly we all know it costs nothing. But some people are paid to smile and they have the toughest job. Have you ever looked at the watchman who opens the door in a restaurant? Have you ever seen several women working in so many hospitality industries? They are all paid to smile for 8 hours or more for their life time.. I feel this is the toughest job, as they need to keep aside all that is their own and keep smiling. Imagine, having to keep aside the cranky call from spouse, or ill health of dear one, or some financial issue and still smile several times as the job demands. They may not even be able to eat the good food that you ate, good flight you have had or a good party or time with someone. Or the deal that you struck or the agreement you signed. Some time it is not even the tip that you pay or the smile you don’t return.. Still they smile and most often it is the most genuine smile and if you are paying attention to the smile, will actually make you feel good. The next time, you walk into a hotel, or a flight or any place where someone welcomes you or bids goodbye with a smile, please look into their eyes and acknowledge. This act not only makes them feel that they are also humans but will get you small but treasured pleasure. Do this if you not already doing this consciously. More than telling anyone but i am telling myself now, even i knew before and been practising.

Once again the small people, the ordinary persons, the less ambitious make me learn and make me touch. It’s the open eyed open hearted life experiences that teach us and makes us happy. Being aware and being present in every moment and ability to smile all the time will heal, will help and will us healthy, wealthy and wise. And listen to the star song and dan seals song. Of course, there are several such times and quotes one can wish to listen and read but living and living simple is the key.. like the cliché goes.. it costs nothing to smile but instead can make you rich and enrich others lives.

GURUJI.. LIFE AND DEATH

                                        GURUJII.... LIFE AND DEATH...

Knowing is only a minute aspect of life and what happens and how one experiences life is very different from the knowledge of it, most of the times. Life springs huge amount of surprises and totally unexpected situations surface, giving all of us experiences which seem common, but will always be unique. Just like how the DNA determines the characters and traits unique to each human, even the pain and pleasure though seem known will hit each individual differently.

There was (unfortunate to put him in the past tense) a guruji whom i had met while i was working for FM in Nizamabad. The first thing that appeals to anyone about him is that, despite being blind there is so much of radiance in the face and his positive attitude and energetic talk would attract people to him. He was full of life and always talked positive and would be so subtle in everything he talked and did that, it would need an attentive and caring human to understand him. Something about what and how he said would encourage me and scores of other people. Be it about my cooking, my behaviour or just about anything. He would never crib or sulk that he became blind ( he was not born blind, making it more difficult to cope up)  nor did he ever talk or behave in a way that made anyone to sympathize with his state. He was fond of music and radio was his best friend and he would know all matters of the world more than what people know by surfing the net.

He had a tremendous discipline in food matters, sleep patterns, exercise, body fitness and never gave any chance or reason to skip any of these. His memory was something that would bewilder anyone who knew him. He was rational and would never be particularistic about anything that would cause any harm or inconvenience to anyone. He kept losing everything but would never lose the self. He would always wish well for all and kept cool even if people ignored him. His unconditional love was most apparently experienced by all. There are quite a few things that i learnt from him, most of all is the ability to be strong and composed irrespective of what the situation is.

I could not take his call few weeks ago and did not call him back. Today i feel very guilty. It is a strong lesson that we should never postpone to call someone or visit someone if we feel like. The last Sunday, 4^th Dec 2011, my mom suddenly asked me how was he? I said i need to call him and as usual i did not call him. The next day morning at around 10.30 am, one of his disciples called me and informed me of his death. I did not know how to react. The people who were with him and spoke to him on Sunday kept saying that, Guruji expressed that he is getting a call from heavens and that he is going to go. He actually said the same few minutes before he passed away and asked his son not to worry after his death. When i was just trying to assimilate this information, i was in the office and i had to face nearly 4 different situations and respond and be there mentally. I wanted to go to Nizamabad and i was reluctant to postpone the Monday evening meeting. By the time i made up my mind in next hour and dispensed matters and people, i knew i will be late for the last rites ritual as i would not be able to reach on time. So i did not go to attend his last rites.

Life is very ironical. Death is inevitable and yes i was in office and no one could connect ( understandably) the importance of this guruji in my life and i was expected may be to be normal and continue the work as obviously they were time sensitive and had to be done. I feel guilty and i also justify for not starting on an impulse as guruji’s rationality would not allow me to suddenly jump and start going there. But its all so strange. When we know the person is alive and we do not meet or contact , we are fine with that and suddenly when we realize that , this person is no more and he cannot be contacted,  is a very vague and difficult feeling to digest and suddenly we feel the loss. Is this all human life all about that death takes away everything in a jiffy? When this is inevitable why is all the negative emotions and feelings dominate us most of the times.. Inevitability of death should all keep us guarded of all that is negative. But it hits us only when someone dear passes away and lesson learnt won’t last long.

Guruji would chase people like me on phone to talk, never gave up and would try to be in touch, shower love and blessings and all unconditionally. I did not bother about him as much as he did about me. This guilt is going to be there all my life. But i will convert the guilt into learning and not commit the same mistake. Will be in touch with all the people i know irrespective of the past, as life is so short and we take nothing from this life except leave so much good like guruji. I miss you a lot Guruji alias Ramachandrananda.

Life never ceases to teach and we should only be ready to learn every minute and move on.