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Sunday, December 30, 2012

The depth of darkness and The trembling void of light

Natbas

About two days back, I started a collection of short stories by M. Gopalakrishnan, Munimedu [link]. The first story of this collection, 'Night' is in my mind for now.

The story is simple enough. There are three people, a mother and her two sons. One of the sons is in a paralysed state and his younger brother takes care of him. Reading the story, which is narrated from the point of view of the paralysed brother, you get to feel that this man is the centre of the story, not only his own but also that of his mother and brother. Narrative wise, this is a good choice, because that paralysed person is self-centred and hates to be left alone.

And left well alone he will be because this story is set on the night of the nuptials of the younger brother. The young man is in the closed room with his wife, and the paralysed man, Thirumalai, sent to sleep out of his room on a raised platform (Thinnai), can't sleep. He forces his mother and brother to attend upon him with his incessant coughing and complaints of breathlessness. The story ends, not with recriminations or any moral judgments, because everyone knows what it happening here, but with the understanding of the inevitable withdrawal of love and its reapportionment that the marriage is meant for.

This is a brilliant story and I am not doing justice to it with my notes. The authorial voice is totally absent; the story starts with the brother outside his home; he calls his mother and then his brother. The mother knows what is happening here, but the brother, Ganesan, doesn't, and his nobility which shines all through the story, makes a good contrast for the dark and damned end to it. I translate it here, without giving anything away:

"Ammakizhavi turned away slowly. Wiping away her tears with the back of her hand, she glanced at Ganesan. She could not see his face clearly, it was dark with the fallen shadows of the lamp. Ganesan's face was motionless with the depth of darkness and the trembling void of light. A great terror gathered itself and welled up her stomach."

M. Gopalakrishnan is a poet and you can sense it in 'the depth of darkness and the trembling void of light'. We seldom think of it, the two being the same to most of us. But darkness is definitely deep, and the absence of light not so - it is more like a glimmer, like the unseen ripples of a lake on a dark night - its insistent and not so silent movement hints at darker things underneath.

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Delhi Rape and the bias against Gujarat

Kalki

I was not entirely wrong when I said that Narendra Modi will not win many, many seats in Gujarat. I was right when I stated that media houses would work against him. How long can the man stand the bias?

Let's look at Gujarat in view of the recent protests against the gang-rape in Delhi. Apart from statistically praising him from time to time, more often the media is out with stories claiming that Gujarat is not that safe for women. Never mind that many have called it among the safest places for women in India. Never mind that women in large numbers say the same.

Read this paragraph by The Times of India: (Police need to get over Gujarat is safe for women' tag: NGOs)

"I saw a girl being harassed on the city road in the afternoon. There was no policeman in the vicinity, the crowd came to the girl's rescue but the teaser fled. This is the stark reality of the city considered safe for women where women can be raped on the main road in broad daylight," said Pathak.

So a crowd of Gujarati men and women rescues a girl from harassment - as opposed to Delhi and Mumbai where rapes on packed trains and slums go without much interference from the crowd - and Mr. Pathak from the story has a problem with that. 

We don't even know if his story is true and whether it's embellished. Even as a make-believe story, media takes every chance to bring the citizen down and speak anti-Modi, who has just won a historic reelection. 

Here's a more recent one from DNA: (Women in Gujarat aren’t safe: Anita Verma)

“The situation of women in Gujarat is worse than in Delhi or any other city,”

That' how the story starts.

While nothing untoward happened in Gujarat like in Delhi, here's a fact-list of toppers on crimes against women. How often do you read these states being investigated/written about as much as Gujarat?

Crime against women: Hyderabad not far behind Delhi [link]

West Bengal tops chart in crime against women [link]

Monday, December 17, 2012

Life gave us much, or little, what regrets can there be?

Kartikey Sehgal

My composition of Faiz Ahmad Faiz's poem, 'Bahut Mila Na Mila', presented by Seema Sehgal for a Pakistani Television, Karachi. She sang two verses which have been described in English below. This is seemingly the last ghazal Faiz wrote. 

The Last Ghazal

Life gave us much, or little, what regrets can there be,
The treasure of pain is ours, what matter the quantity?

It's a lifetime since I know, don't explain it now to me,
What kindness is, beloved, and what iniquity.

Prepare the feast, sing ghazals, let the cup be ever full.
"If the world's woe is great, is there not wine in plenty?"

Trans. Sarvat Rahman

And though not sung in this version, another couplet speaks:

"If the world's not set on fire, of what use is a verse?
Vain tears, that fill the eyes, and move not humanity."

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Why Modi May Not Win Many, Many Seats

Kalki

Gujarat is better than before. But with economic prosperity comes snobbishness. And a desire to play kingmaker. And especially in India, a sense of emotional-ness with the Congress. Just like the rural population of the rest of India still hankers after the 'raj' and the white-skinned 'sahibs'.

India's most prosperous state will decide on December 20 the story of Indian politics. 

I have a feeling that the media has predicted Modi to do better than before so that his fall is harder. So they can claim that finally the people have triumphed, and also invoke Godhra and other demons. 

Media will call it the anti-incumbency factor. But the logic that dictates the Indian mind-set is this: my village/my city has seen a 30 percent growth in the last 10 years. I deserve a 50 percent growth rate. Because I am now rich and it's my money that goes into the running of the state. So I will not vote for the incumbent this time. 

Modi's detractors have, in fact, reminded people of the same; what you have is not because of the Chief Minister but your own hard labour, what you don't have is because of the CM. 

Contrary to popular belief, Gujarati media is not as favourable to Modi as they had been for a long time. Apparently, the government's decision to welcome more newspapers in the state has troubled the leading media houses, whose premiership has been threatened. Case in Point - Link

If he fares badly, the media and his thousand detractors will not consider the anti-incumbent factor but put the blame on his brashness, arrogance and other such apparent qualities. Should he win, they will call it an expected event and not credit him much. Such is the environment he lives in. 

Rich people demand more. And they are often unable to perceive relative progress. 

There is a good chance that Modi will be a victim of the classical Indian mindset. 

Monday, December 10, 2012

Making girls into 'items'

Miss Ruth 

Yes, please ask your daughter/s to dance to - "Sounds of ooh and aah come from all over my body." 

By now, I am well aware of the various item songs in the film industry, and their numero uno lovers, young boys and girls, who love to tell each other - "I have taken ill-reputation, for you my darling." 

What will unite these young girls, barely seven or ten is the sisterhood of sluttiness. And a la girls in UK and USA, the world will be one closer family with unwed mothers and teen pregnancies. 

I am amazed at how Indian people who eat little and wear little will spend on entertainment that is surely going to add to their woes. The real problem is this: corresponding to the influx of all these raunchy songs, there are la few good songs in the market. And to add to that these good songs are not marketed well. Every movie, including kids' movie, is centred around dumbing it down for the kids to understand.

So a film on Hindu God Hanuman will have them shaking their booty while singing screaching songs, which are basically mild versions of item songs. 

 

Item Song -- Commercial Film
                  |
                  |
Mild Item   -- Family Film
Song          
                  |
                  |
Item Song -- Kids' Movies
Reminder 

 

 

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Thank you, Kartikey

Two or three days after a friend had stumbled upon this blog, and with annoyed surprise, asked me how long I've been posting here, it was a happy coincidence that Kartikey resumed writing in his blog - and posts from his site, found their way here. Thanks, Kartikey.

Though I had studied English at school, and have read a considerable number of books, I rarely get a chance to talk to anyone in English. For all practical purposes, it is very much the language of books. Since I started to write in Tamil a couple of years back, I find it very difficult to put my thoughts in English. I've been writing less and less, and have come to a stop. Time is a big constraint, though.

Kartikey's posts here are gentle reminders to me to resume, and I am naturally grateful for his presence in this blog. Seeing his posts recently, I feel it is important that I should acknowledge how much his posts mean to me.

So here it is.

Better days might yet come.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Bollywood is Backward

Miss Ruth

Indian (Bollywood) film culture is backward. It survives on the cult of some sort of hero-worship. Make no mistake, there are two kinds of cultures.

  1. Avid Movie Culture: Mostly Europe and parts of America. Don't know about Russia and others. These people love cinema. They are not over dependent on commercial stakes. A movie is good if it's good. They are often called the elites and can be seen at Cannes and Berlin and other festivals.
  2. Commerce Movie Culture: Mostly America and parts of Europe. Don't get me wrong here. You find either cultures in every country. Bur America rules the pack. Brad Pitt wanting to work in a Bollywood film is one such example. India grabs the eyeballs, hence you'll see an increased interest among international celebrities. Oh and last heard, Paris Hilton was in town. For more than a night.

India is all eyeball culture. Hence my Indian friends, and I admit most of them are educated and resent Indian cinema. It's okay for once-in-a-while fun. It's okay if you are a sadist and need to laugh out loud over silliness. But even daily comedians become a chore!

But Bollywood is repeated silliness. The thrust is on pocketing the money of the masses. Or the 'whistle blowers' as my friend informs me. the ones who want some violent or sensual titillation and will spend on it.

India (Bollywood) will get success and riches, but at the cost of respect. As more Indians are educated, they will be attracted more to better films that come out of the world, than their own films.

What I find truly pathetic about this country is that they don't promote their own culture in their films. Maybe the 'whistle blowers' ought to demand better.

Thursday, November 29, 2012

We are jealous of Sachin Tendulkar

Kalki

We want the great Sachin Tendulkar to quit because we are jealous of him. He is not failing enough. People who climb up must fall down so we can feel that there was no use going up in the first place. You will only fall harder. Then we will be happy about our non-achievements.

Then, since we are romantic and use it as an excuse to cover our tracks in life, we hate the player who doesn't do that. Sachin doesn't waste time in interviews and controversies. We hate that. He actually works hard and gets laid on the field. We don't like that. We do not want to work that hard. Better if it is proven that Sachin has God-like qualities. Then we can say - it's all luck. And feel good.

In all of his recent 10-12 innings, we see a man who fails to score despite having the temperament and the timing. We see persistence despite failures. We hate that. If only he would hang his head in shame and instead of working hard, make a statement that 'I am quitting for the sake of my country', we would applaud his selflessness.

We are not good with hard-work. We want to make noise. Feel like specialists.

We don't know what in Sachin makes him unable to score runs. So we use the term loosely - reflexes are slowing, the eye does not catch the ball, the heart says yes but the body says no.

Fact: Indians never knew why they liked the man in the first place. He scores runs, and while everyone around him fails, he persists and falls, we feel glorious.

We don't know cricket. We never gave a damn about backfoot drives and flicks. They were words to throw around and not understand.

We have failed Sachin in proving ourselves incapable of intelligence.

He has not failed. He has played cricket and he will retire rich. He had done what he wanted to. Something most Indians will never boast of.

Hence, it is easy to criticize Sachin.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Dance Classic

Kartikey Sehgal

  • Dance is not just shaking a leg or two.
  • If you can imagine, you can make dances for classical music.  

The Times of India featured a story by Tanuj Kumar:
Don't let anyone tell you that classical music is dull

The introductory paragraph says:

In the 1988 film Running on Empty, which features budding musician River Phoenix, a teacher plays two tracks of music to his teenage class. The first has a Madonna-esque, pacy rhythm which propels the students to shake a leg or two, but they soon take to their seats when the teacher follows the catchy song with an orchestral piece by Beethoven. He asks his class to differentiate the two. After a round of subjective answers like "first good, second bad" and vice versa, Phoenix raises his hand and says, "You can't dance to Beethoven." The teacher is more than pleased with his answer. Well, they were wrong!

That teacher needs stringent punishment. Get me the cane.

Dance is not merely shaking 'a leg or two'. It is movement, expression and choreography. Like in this dance for a film by Astad Deboo.

Noor-un-ala-Noor FR -Meenaxi

 

And so is everything in this video a dance; all movements, all spoken parts, including the girl flying.
Note the choreography to the instrumental section. They don't have 'beats' to which the actors move. 
There are instances when the girl is 'merely walking' and 'standing and singing'.  

 

 

You can dance to classical music if you can traverse the regular definition.
Wagner could when he spoke of Beethoven's Seventh symphony as an "apotheosis of the dance" [link
The music Wagner referred to - YouTube link. 

Many years back, I had choreographed a short dance that told of an Army man's separation from his beloved.
It was set to music by Chopin. It featured waltz and improvised movements. 

The actors deliberated on expressions of pain and anguish and fleeting love. Movements became restricted and representational. 

You don't have to have 'beats' in a song to which you can shake/move your body. 
You can imagine them, or just express to the mood and emotion.

Why, is ballet not a dance? It is.

In the video below, there are no obvious beats. The choreographer imagines them and sets the dance thus.

It is not something you can do in the kitchen while baking; shake a leg to the beat.
Note 1:18 onwards, the music is pacy and you can catch the beats, but see that the dance is not just thrusting a hip to the beat. 

You can't do this dance without thought and rhythm. And mood. And feeling. 

Good night.

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Ganesha came to me, upset.

Kartikey Sehgal

[Ganesha Chaturthi is the Hindu festival celebrated on the birthday (re-birth) of Lord Ganesha, the son of Shiva and Parvati.
It is believed that Lord Ganesh bestows his presence on earth for all his devotees during this festival.] link

Ganesha came to me, upset.

Why are your ears red, Ganesha?
I needn’t wait for an answer. It’s those damn loud speakers again.

Why did you park yourself in the Mumbai idols, after what happened last year?

I thought people must have changed, said Ganesha.

Oh well.
After a similiar experience last year, he floated over the sea for a few hours, resting under the moonlight.
In Mumbai, that’s the only place without potholes.

We bought a packet of chips and consumed calories.

So they don’t really make good music for me then. It’s all filmi item songs.
And I am supposed to be the protector.

I decided that despite the sorry state of his ear-drums, I will play some songs for him.

This, Ganesha, is by Yesudas.

And this by M S Subba Lakshmi.

Yes, said Ganesha, voice is like honey. This music is the right way for many to begin programs, funtions, and concerts of significance.

Yes, I said.

Like film functions and music releases.

Aha. Stop the sarcasm. Let’s talk about this one, sung longingly by two super artists.

Raag Hamsadhwani, said Ganesha. Immense variations.
Set in this same raga, I once heard mother Parvati sing this one:

The moon was very fake though. Unbelievable.

Seeing that his mood was good, I settled into listening to his tales.
Soon some loudspeakers would blare a loud song again.

Friday, September 14, 2012

What America can learn from this artist

Kartikey Sehgal

  • we -- we own this country.
  • We -- we own it. It is not you owning it, and not politicians owning it. Politicians are employees of ours.
  • Whether you are a Democrat or Republican or whether you're libertarian or whatever, you are the best. And we should not ever forget that. And when somebody does not do the job, we got to let them go.
                                                           -Clint Eastwood 

(We don't do politics these days, unless.)

 Clint Eastwood is an acclaimed artist from America. 

In view of the recent 9/11 anniversary and the forthcoming elections, this story tells you what American policy should be like (description below video):

In brief, suckers attack a girl in daylight, her weak friend offers them peace and brotherhood, fails.
Eastwood comes to the party, tells them to ____. Takes the girl home.
The film, Gran Torino, symbolises American values, that need to be preserved and passed on. Bravery and balls.

This is what he stood for during the recent Republican party convention. [link

He is being mocked by people who need to take a leaf out of his work and try to achieve a fraction of it. These minions are busy making fun of him, calling him a senile old man who yells at chairs.

The speech was in disfavour of President Obama. It was, however, not totally in favour of Mitt Romney, at whose convention Eastwood spoke impromptu.

An 82 year old man speaking impromptu Vs Obama, Romney and others speaking learned and practiced speeches.

After being mocked initially, many people are coming to grips with what he spoke. Leading to the celebration of 'National Empty Chair Day'.

These chairs hold quotes of Clint's speech. This is inspiring. An impromptu speech of an actor rising above the practiced speeches.

Clint's frank talk has, for the time being, superseded the aura of the Presidential candidates.

Leave aside the politics, whether Republican or Democrat, we need courageous men as leaders, and courage is exemplified by your work.

Americans criticising him should should make a note despite differing ideologies. This is what will get them out of the rut they find themselves in.

Monday, August 6, 2012

Your devotion will bear fruit

Kartikey Sehgal

(From a music discussion last week)
A popular Hindi song from the film ‘Aradhana’.

You say that there is a sense of ‘longing’ in the song - you find some ‘emotion’ in the voice.

The voice is sagacious. Like that of a man who knows pain and is telling you to not cry. He doesn’t tell you so jovially. He doesn’t tell you what modern self-help books tell you - to take it light and easy.

The singer and composer S. D. Burman is certain that life has her ills. She has sorrows, and they get to your heart. Despite that, your devotion will bear fruit.

Suffering is part of life. It’s not that you will not suffer again. You may. But your efforts despite the sorrows will bear fruit. If such is life, why do you weep? What’s the use of weeping.

While telling you to take heart and to bear fortitude, song-writer Anand Bakshi says that your heart is vast, and that when you restrain your tears, and not give them away easily, they turn into pearls.

Here is the translation of the song in English; read it like prose:

"Why to you shed tears, your long sacrifice and worship will be successful, if an earthen lamp breaks it is just soil, but when it lights it brings brightness. When tears flow they are just water, but when held back they are pearls, do not waste these pearls, Your heart is wide as an ocean which can absorb great storms, why does your ignorant eye flow like a river, why do you cry. Somewhere there is sadness, somewhere there is joy, this how the garden of life is, make a garland
-MrRagbag

The song:

 

Safal Hogi Teri - Rajesh Khanna Sharmila Tagore - Aradhana

Observe the stress on the word ‘teri’. The first time you listen to ‘safal hogi teri aradhana’, it plays plain. (0:22 to 0:26 ssfor non-Hindi speakers.)
The next time, it sounds different, with the extra stress on the word ‘teri’. Play it yourself (in a simple deconstruction, lower scale) on this virtual keyboard by pressing the keys:

SDF DF DS 8 /. ,,  (Press the Yellow mouse button on the keyboard to enable 'keyboard musical typing')

 

ButtonBeats.com

I am using this internet keyboard for the first time here, and in time we may use it proficiently.

In the song, this version appears at 0:39 to 0:43. The word Aradhana (devotion) is stretched, so it breaks like Araa-(pause)-dhana. The stress (on the word ‘teri’) followed by the stretching on the word ‘Aradhana’ makes for what you may describe as wish, pain, and in fact, any emotion that resonates with you. Like your elder chides you, ‘Your devotion WILL be successful’ or, damn-it, he says irritatedly, ‘It WILL be successful’, then pauses, putting his hand on your head, ‘your devotion’. In these myriad ways you can imagine the ‘feel’ of the song (that’s a popular expression these days).

The other ‘regular’ style of ‘Safal Hogi teri’ (appearing first at 0:23 to 0:27) is:

SDS 8 / .,.,

The effect of ‘pause and stretch’ is an effective tool in song and speech to bring effect. Good orators use it to drive home a point and to get the attention of their listeners.

Now listen to this song, and sing along, with the pauses. Imagine what the trio of singer-composer-writer are trying to convey through the song construction.

 
 
Baiyan Na Dharo (Dastak) by Baiyan Na Dharo (Dastak on Grooveshark

   

Saturday, July 28, 2012

A Confessional

A sociopath feels the need for people as much as he feels to be rid of them. He is used to his own thoughts, their comforts and unsurprising insights. But people disturb, and when they don't surprise, shock. And a sociopath, unless he cuts himself off from all company and cloisters himself in a psychotic cocoon, cannot live without people, he needs them at least to get away from the claustrophobic effects of personhood.

All this makes for strange reading, but for about a year of so, I've been closely involved with a group of people, and while it has been a rewarding experience, i am in a state where i don't know which way to turn. I would like to get back to being myself, to turn back to the  slow passage of time, the weak pull of people. But these days, I feel the outward pull more and more, I spend a lot of time and energy to fulfil what in effect is other persons' needs, and the hollow feeling deepens with each engagement, and each further outward movement.

So ends the confessional.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Miserable Artists, Great Fans

Kartikey Sehgal

The coolest people are all miserable. This is a secret.

Misery strikes the best, for it has something to feed on. From boring people, misery gets nothing.
To get by in life, the finest of men appear well. Hence the way to love them is to know and accept their private life.

Lets say there are two types of lovers: the first type that accept the happy face and assumed awesomeness of any artist’s life.
The other type look within and love the artist knowing that he faces hard times. And often, more so than others because of his mind.

  • Classical composer Beethoven married - nobody - and fought violently for his nephew’s custody.
  • Russian composer Mikhail Glinka went bitter after his Opera ‘Ruslan and Lyudmila’ failed. It became popular after his death.
  • Indian singer K L Saigal died from alcoholism. Though we love the ‘alcohol induced voice’.
  • Punjabi poet Shiv Kumar Batalvi never married his true love and took to alcohol.

If you go to private mehfils, they all discuss of how ‘cool’ they all were. And how unfortunate and ‘that’s how life is’. But would they have married Beethoven, or appreciated Glinka’s Opera - in his lifetime. Or gotten Batalvi to marry the girl of his choice despite the caste problems?

I say many wouldn’t. Here’s another secret - ‘that which is not part of consensus, is to be shunned. Until that is dead’.

So when you listen to music, particularly music created with the intention to not just please but to be a testament to man’s genius, immerse yourself with the thought that the artist faced life’s miseries, yet came out with - this. What we hail as triumphant may not be just the music but also the artist behind it.

.......
I leave you with music from Richard Wagner’s Opera, Tristan and Isolde; the Opera was panned and ridiculed when released, a critic called it, “the most repugnant thing I have ever seen or heard in all my life.” These days, it is one of the best things ever.

Thursday, July 19, 2012


Whenever I see a post here I feel guilty, because I should be writing here. I don't seem to have the words these days.  I don't converse in English, either at home or office, and it remains a language acquired for reading- and writing long, contentious mails that end up in tired acquiescence. And then, I am deeply preoccupied with writing in Tamil, and fact is, everything I write in English sounds wrong. Probably you knew this already, but these are days of my awakening.

So I start off with a few sentences like this, and when I hit a roadblock, I don't seem to have the will or energy or even the wherewithal to go beyond it, I click select all and delete the whole thing. If it is paper, may be the feeling will be worse, because your failure is a physical presence, but with the computer, you are just a click away from closure of whatever you want to be closed.

I started out to write this post for kartikey, whose talks on music I read, but don't comment, because I don't seem to have the right words that would sound both true and appropriate. I do listen to some classical music online, so I find his posts helpful.  Thanks Kartikey,  I started out writing this post with the intention of thanking you, but could do this only at the end of the piece. Thanks again.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

A Practical Introduction to Indian Classical Music

Kartikey Sehgal

(Based on a talk by the author)

 So Indian classical music has taken a beating, you say. What is it’s use, you say. You don’t understand it, or don’t want to. Here is an introduction of how super it is - And important for you to be able to appreciate music and poetry. [photo source]

And joining me is the king of ghazals, Mehdi Hassan, who departed recently so as to sing with Mr. God. But as per the Sanatana Dharma, his soul stays back among us.

Now that Mehdi Hassan is no more, people can go about their business. Epitaphs have been written, tributes are done away with. Newspaper-wallahs await another death of another cult personality.

Let us, you and I, the champions of art and culture, see what Mehdi has given us.

He has given us ‘classical ghazals’ - classical poetry + classical music. Mehdi has given us demonstrations of the use of the raga in his compositions. He has, time and again, explained to the audience of what he is doing, and how he has composed the poem. He has described his variations and rightly boasted of how he is so cool as a singer and composer.

On to the example.

In this video - and you better watch it fully, with the introduction - he tells you about what went into composing one of the most powerful compositions. He employs raga Mian ki Malhar to tell you that ‘if the destination itself walks to me only then (i might reach)
(for) the desire for the destination is no more and has become (or made me) immobile’ [source: Meenakshi Madhur]

This raga is often hailed as the raga of the rains. You may have heard this popular song from a Hindi film;
‘Bole re Papihara’. It is also set in the same raga. Mian ki Malhar.
Malhar is the original raga. Mr. Tansen’s variations give it the polite prefix ‘Mian’ (from Mian Tansen).

Before getting the feel of the raga, read the translation of the poem Mehdi sings. This is by a user from the website ExperienceProject.

The first couplet of the ghazal translated by this unknown user:

Ek Bas Tu Hi Nahin Mujhase Kafa Ho Baitha
Mainne Jo Sang Taraasha Tha Kuda Ho Baitha....!!!

*so now you are angry with me as well.....i have no complains because you are not the only one who have complains.......!! whoever i have chiseled on the anvil of love becomes God and thus gets beyond the reach of my mortal hands....!!!!! .

You are angry but I have no complaints, coz that’s how you are. That’s life. That’s my fate. I do nice things but stone turns to dust. Now listen to Mehdi sing it out. See how the tune goes.

He first explains to you the raga, sings the swaras associated with the raga, a short aalap. Then tells you how cool he is in singing a note not present in the harmonium.

Have you listened to classical musical performances? They have long, long aalaps (introductions). Consider this as a short aalap. And be glad he tells you about it.

Now go to the website and see the translation for the other couplets. Then come back to the video.

This is one among many of Mehdi’s ghazals where he brings out the importance and beauty of classical music. Some other time, it should be possible to discuss his singing prowess.

Listen post 6:00 mark in the video to see his variation. Here is a man who knows the swaras, can combine them artfully, can bring variety - variety in the combination of swaras set over the same line.

So what all you know from this ghazal:
Raga Mian ki Malhar + its swaras-how it sounds + the meaning of the poetry + using the raga to bring out the meaning.

You have stated that you find pride in this ghazal, a sense of complaint, plus the way he sings makes him appear angry and bashful about life and people. You have also stated that the ghazal is sung as an advice/ wisdom lessons to people.

As per your life experiences, you will interpret the mood variedly. Art has done its job.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Music and Poetry in “In the Mood for Love”

Kartikey Sehgal

 

In the Mood for Love [IMDB link] is a meditation on time. It uses music to transcend the celluloid constraints of time and space. Why, even in life, we edit our memories, while listening to some evocative tune.

Music is a tool for emotion. Without music, only the imaginative can see emotion in longing-ness portrayed by the actors.

Music slows the rhythm of this film. Imagine that you work like a wind all day long, shuffling between files and rooms and bosses and quick coffee breaks and then you come back home - alone, its quiet, and you settle to reflect on the day. That’s when the time is slow. That’s when your life is long.

This clip from the film:

There are many important things to do in life than walk down a staircase to buy food. Yet, this is when the force of thoughts hit you. The mundaneness of your action bears the memory of the most important things of life. This ordinariness and how you deal with it reflects your life.
And the music, used repeatedly in the film, is a reflection of this.

When everything is over...

It is a restless moment.
She has kept her head lowered,
to give him a chance to come closer.
But he could not, for lack of courage.
She turns and walks away.

That era has passed.
Nothing that belonged to it exists any more.

He remembers those vanished years.
As though looking through a dusty window pane,
the past is something he could see, but not touch.
And everything he sees is blurred and indistinct. [Source]

Film is poetry, music and all factors that are artistic, but often ignored in the process of pleasing an audience and achieving other ineptitudes.

The repetition of the musical theme is to show hidden sorrow despite the kaleidoscope of noise and light and colour. It is a symbol of time, of what cooks within the hearts.

Poetry is a means to transcend time. To connect years and thoughts - If they can be, for once an era has passed, it has passed. What stays is the memory. “...looking through a dusty window pane,
the past is something he could see, but not touch”

Poetry speaks straight - Things have passed, that the inevitable has occurred. This was meant to be. That whether you rue in misery, or laugh out loud with a drink, whether you love, or hate, it has no bearing on time. And in the movie, once the years have passed, the music is used again as a tool to symbolise this thought.

The film is not obvious; it does not tell you what you must feel. Instead, it plays along, true to life. The understanding of the film is the understanding of life; it is not obvious, it reveals itself slowly in memory and regret.

As a character says: “You notice things if you pay attention.”

Now do so for this scene:

In The Mood For Love - Daffodil from Salar Molaei on Vimeo.

The music plays; the woman stands and wonders. This scene is the first time we listen to the theme. And for the first time things are slow. Till now they were brisk, everybody was talking briskly, the scenes were shorter, lots of action and movement, lots of manners and smiles. And like I mentioned above, this is time for reflection, “whilst the world is busy outside, what speaketh you of the seeds within?

Friday, July 6, 2012

What is this ‘Overture’ in music?

Kartikey Sehgal

The ‘Overture’ in Opera, and in mainstream movies.
Based on a talk by the author.

Hear this, the Overture to Ruslan and Lyudmila (R&L), and have your hearts filled with joy and exuberance - as I have - on this Sunday morning, muddled by the nonchalance of the rains, and the cruel indifference of the weather to any respite from humidity. Do as I have, read something whilst listening to it, then leave aside the reading material, and sway to its energy, defined so fluidly by the violins and the flute, alternatively taking over the task to make you dissolve in thoughts. Leave aside the rains.



Ruslan And Ludmilla (Overture) by Mikhail Glinka on Grooveshark

Alternative web link: (slow tempo, different beginning) 

R&L is an Opera in five acts, based on a poem by Alexander Pushkin. It is composed by Mikhail Glinka, often hailed as the father of Russian classical music.

Behold, the Opera didn’t do wonders and Mikhail was wounded by the indifference. So much for people wearing corsets and coats and carefully folded handkerchiefs and being deaf.

The Overture to this opera - Overture defined as the introduction to an opera - is very popular.
Here’s what R&L is about:

The poem tells of the abduction of Ludmilla by an evil sorcerer, Chernomor, from a party given for Ludmilla's three suitors, one of whom is Ruslan. Each suitor rides off to save the girl, encountering a fantastic assortment of witches, hermits, magic castles, enchanted gardens, magic swords, and so forth, rather in the style of the tales of the Arabian Nights. The sorcerer is vanquished in the end by Ruslan, who revives Ludmilla from a trance and wins her hand in marriage. [Source]

Six year after it was released, the Opera was withdrawn. This was a considerably short time in that era. It was said that Mikhail’s composition for his first Opera, ‘A Life for the Tsar’ was musically better. Consequently, R&L (his second work) was regarded as a superior work.

Critics should eat grass.

Yes, operas have singers singing out their heart, or those of the characters and the conditions they are embroiled in. But the introduction - the Overture - is often instrumental. Over the years, it has meant different things. It would introduce the pieces that were to be sung or fleshed out later. It would set the mood of the opera. It would play in brief the main popular pieces that were to follow.

You may not have seen an Opera, but to get a feel of the Overture, let’s see how it is done in the movies.

The Overture in movies plays before the opening credits start rolling. We are not counting the music that plays during the credits as an Overture. Overture in films would mean a special space given to the music, it’s importance as a separate entity, like in the Opera where it plays solo and not in conjunction with any action on the stage.

Even if it is not against the black screen in the cinemas, it has to hold its importance during any ongoing activity. Like in this Overture form the film ‘Dancer in the Dark’.

Here’s another from ‘West Side Story’.

Comments on the Overture from YouTube

  • I still get chills when hearing this music. Especially at the end of the overture when the skyline of New York comes into view.
  • They don't make movies like this anymore. They should add an Overture to movies again. :(
  • Too bad none of the new films have overtures. And it seems like only 5 seconds of each song on a soundtrack is actually in a film nowadays.

A few popular overtures in classical music:

Here’s the Overture to ‘The Marriage of Figaro’ by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:


Here’s the Overture to ‘The Barber of Seville’ by Gioachino Antonio Rossini:

You have seen a clear link between the movies and Western Classical Music. Whether you see a play, listen to a recording, or watch a movie, you can relate to this thing called ‘Overture’.

Monday, June 25, 2012

The Harp and the Harpsichord

Kartikey Sehgal

Background

Bach= Johann Sebastian Bach. German Composer. Among the bosses of Western Classical Music. 

Harpsichord: A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed. The harpsichord had fallen out of popularity during the mid 18th century in favour of the fortepiano and keyboard.This is how it looks: 

(click here to enlarge)

Harp: The harp is a hand-plucked string instrument, usually triangular in shape, in which the plane of the strings is perpendicular to the soundboard. This is how it looks:

(click here to enlarge)

Attention for videos: If you have slow internet: Click on 240p in the settings that are in the bar just below the YouTube video screen. If you don't see 240p, then stick with 360p.

There are several compositions by Bach that I feel would do better without the use of the Harpsichord.

Let us see what our friend wikipedia tells us about this instrument. Any emphasis - mine.

During the late 18th century it gradually disappeared from the musical scene with the rise of the fortepiano. But in the 20th century it made a resurgence, used in historically informed performance of older music, in new (contemporary) compositions, and in popular culture.

In the late 18th century the harpsichord was supplanted by the piano and almost disappeared from view for most of the 19th century: an exception was its continued use in opera for accompanying recitative, but the piano sometimes displaced it even there.

Perhaps the most celebrated composer who wrote for the harpsichord was J. S. Bach (1685–1750), whose solo works (for instance, the Well-Tempered Clavier and the Goldberg Variations), continue to be performed very widely, often on the piano. Bach was also a pioneer of the harpsichord concerto

And talking about Joseph Haydn and Mozart (famed composers like Bach), who are considered as pioneers in style and introductions of musical forms, this is what we learn:

For both, the instrument featured in the earlier period of their careers and was abandoned once they had shifted their efforts to the piano.

Why did they do that? The use of the Harpsichord... Doth it seem like an attempt to give a base to the orchestra, with the plucking sound (not by the fingers as in the harp) moving to the tune of the string section? And my estimation of Harpsichord as a base comes from the modern day musical trend of basing the songs with drums and ‘beat’.
This is untrue because we are dealing with men, who, even if they wrote to make the people happy, to cater to their tastes, would not tamper with the sanctity of melody and reduce an instrument to just an appendage. We must, immediately discount comparisons with the modern trend of using an instrument just so that people can clap and dance to its... beat.

The Harpsichord can add emotion to the movement if it is defined by another instrument, say, a violin. To see what the Harpsichord adds or subtracts from music, let’s listen to this piece by Bach that does not use the Harpsichord.

Now hear the same composition by Bach where the Harpsichord assumes prominence.

If you don’t have the patience, then hear at least till 1: 30 mark of either movements. They serve as practicals. Else you’ll be depending solely on theory.

Do you think that the Harpsichord plays a better role in this concert of taking the movement forward, depending many-a-time on it’s solo recital. Or is the emotion that we attribute to the Harpsichord actually derived from the violin and other instruments.

I prefer the first version, without the Harpsichord.

...

How pleasing the Harp sounds here (reminder: harp is not harpsichord), in Mozart’s concerto:

(hear 1:40 onwards for the Harp)

Did the piano replace the Harpsichord (in 18th-19th century) as it sounded better, in terms of its ability to transfer the emotive content of the movement. While in a mix, with the other instruments, the Harp fits very well. But is it able, in an orchestra, to emote as other instruments do? Yes.

In the interview below, we hear that the Harpischord has no nuance or dynamic. And the Harp is praised as an impressionist instrument and very evocative in sonatas. The story is titled, “Harp, Not Harpsichord, in Bach's Sonatas”. It is recommended listening for music lovers who’d like to see the difference.

In the Mozart piece above (the video above the radio link above), hear 5:00 onwards to see how good the Harp sounds, how well it is mixed with the flute, and when it’s time for its solo, it carries forward, and works as a great intermediary in taking the movement ahead. In Bach’s concertos, I think the Harp would have done better. It is time I found out if there are Bach recordings available that replace the Harpsichord with the Harp.

In Bach, I often found the Harpsichord to be a distraction, and ‘like a man who must have his chance in the orchestra because he pays for everyones food’.

I feel that I would have enjoyed the Bach concertos more if the Harpsichord played a lesser role in the orchestra.

Here’s where the Harp strings you

While using ‘short notes’ (note value), the Harp is similar to the piano in its effectiveness. They can tell a story on their own, or they can do a group session with the other instruments. Argue that the Harpsichord can not play ‘long notes’ and sustain like the violin, or be dynamic like the Harp (and piano). And if emotion requires sustenance, then you may say that in an orchestra, the Harpsichord draws emotion from the other instruments.

Harp has dynamism and would fit the orchestral setting of the Bach concertos.

Here’s how one of the most popular compositions by Beethoven sounds on the Harp. I say that the Harpsichord does not carry the emotion for this.

Listen to this piece of Ave Maria, composed by Bach, and played on Harp-Violin.

Like pebbles falling in a stream, that’s how I describe the sound of the Harp, as the violin takes a walk alongside, oblivious to what the Harp is saying. Parallel poetry.

Now listen to the same composition employing Violin-Piano

Ignoring the lesser sound quality of the video, and without the need to compare, we can say that both interpretations work to bring out the emotive content of the composition. What Harp has Piano doesn’t, and what Piano has, Harp doesn’t. But both play their role in ‘Hailing Mary’ (Ave Maria = Hail Mary).

Here’s the same composition, piano solo

And finally, Ave Maria, Harp solo

Listen to them repeatedly if you are a lover of music. (It’s better than listening to your human lover)

Now I come back to the point I made earlier, that in the Orchestral works of Bach, the Harpsichord sounds distracting and overused in some places. I say this with slight trepidation, as I don’t want to discard the value of the instrument. That which makes an attempt at sincere pleasure, you don’t want to hurt.

You may listen to and see for yourself if the Harpsichord works in an orchestra as an effective instrument. Unless mixed in with the others, and provided the padding, does it function as carrier of the message/emotion of the composition. If it does, or not, here are the Bach pieces I feel overused the instrument or depended on it to convey more than it could.

and

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

The Last Epitaph for Mehdi Hassan

Kartikey Sehgal

During my recent trip to Lahore for a musical performance, I had wished that someone would sit with me, exclusively, and talk about art and music. Any genre, style or era. I would invariably have brought in Mehdi Hassan into the conversation.

It was not to be. Mehdi featured in conversations related to the gloom that grips Pakistan. Regular electricity failures, Taliban, corruption, fear of life. Mehdi was never alone; he was never a solo. He was brought in as a counterpoint, a saviour. ‘We have so many problems, but thank God for Mehdi Hassan’.

Whenever the conversation got uneasy or boring or out of context, I brought in Mehdi Hassan. It lit them up. I mentioned his name to the musicians who were rehearsing to accompany us. One of them shifted from talking about the state of education to tell me about “...this unknown facet of Khan sahab! Once he had an informal mehfil with Tufail Niazi...”. The incident may or may not be unique, but the enthusiasm was of a man who was happy with life. Momentarily, the attention was away from the bludgeoning electricity prices and unhealthy religious indoctrinations.

Then there were those - of all ages - who didn’t care for Mehdi Hassan. I didn’t care about them.
Whatever else Pakistan may be, for me, it is also the home of Mehdi Hassan. And you don’t ignore him in his own backyard.

His name has been my mother’s only autograph. Hailing from Jammu and Kashmir, she has faced the wrath of India-Pakistan wars and hidden in makeshift bunkers to avoid bombing. Yet, no love was lost for the “most brilliant” Mehdi Hassan.

“Pyaari Beti Seema ke Liye” on a piece of white paper, preserved till a few years back.

And despite a series of some God-damn arguments, when I had to compose a ghazal for her, she called to ask me if I could base it on a specific raga, and make it sound ‘unique’, something... “just like Mehdi Hassan”.

Mehdi was for us - my father, mother and I - the epitome of excellence. And the converging point of our interests. If, at the dinner table, we have different preferences for music, it is a safe bet to arrive at “The Best of Mehdi Hassan”.

During our recent weekly get-together for art and poetry, my friends and I discussed one of Mehdi’s simpler and popular ghazals. The next day, a member remarked that he listened to the ghazal several times, and knowing the meaning of the words and the crux of the poetry enhanced his pleasure. “Poetry requires personal experience. Knowing the meaning of the tough words, you can connect to your own life. And his voice conveys the pain. It’s more than singing.” The sher in focus was:

“Haath Uthate Hue Unke Na Koi Dekhega,
Kiske Aane Ki Karenge Wo Dua Mere Baad”

“Perhaps in every religion, we lift the hands to pray. But who will see the girl do so after I am gone”, he inferred in Marathi-Hindi.

Likewise, now that you are gone and people are praising you as a messiah, who will really take on the mantle to sing classical poetry, and who will sing it in the 'Voice of God'.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Don't ask me for the love I once gave you

Kartikey Sehgal

My composition of Faiz's 'Mujhse Pehli Si Mohabbat'sung by Seema Sehgal, at Tagore Theatre, Chandigarh, on 20th May, 2012. 

I trust you will enjoy listening to this as much as I have enjoyed composing it. The poem is one of the most well-known in modern times and among the best Faiz wrote.

Even now your beauty is tantalizing, but what can be done
There are other heartaches in the world than those of love

This rings true to the nature of men, especially those who see beyond the pleasures and entrapments of love; a life-long game for those prone to romanticism. Should love be the pursuit, and life the hobby. Or should the world be the pursuit, and love a side-game, a passion indulged when the sufferings of the world are lost to the mind. 

Early on in the poem he says,

Your face would bring permanence to every spring
What is there but your eyes to see in the world anyway

A short-lived passion - when faced with the essence of life, whatever we know of it. 
But even in the worst of places and circumstances, when life has wearied us, we pause and say, 'what is there but your eyes to see in the world anyway'. Such is the game of life, the mantra of its continuum. 

And when the mind has wearied of the promises of love, it looks at the world beyond

The dreadful magic of uncountable dark years
Woven in silk, satin and brocade
In every corner are bodies sold in the market
Covered in dust, bathed in blood

Don't ask me for the love I once gave you, my love.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Art and the Mind

Kartikey Sehgal

After reading Rabindranath Tagore’s play titled Malini, a group of art enthusiasts wonder that among the characters - each aiming for the righteous - who is wrong and who is not. We have come not to a conclusion that can put us at ease and make us believe that - the riddle is solved.

The riddle is self-created. The play, seemingly, is not about the right or wrong, the moral or immoral.
The riddle was posted as a query to examine human relations and the enigma of morality and duty. If a friend is misinformed and acts according to his current ideals, without meaning to harm you, but only because he feels that he righteous, then would you hold his actions wrong?

This is the story of the play, taken from this website.

This is a famous drama composed by Rabindranath Tagore. This play takes place n a Hindu kingdom. Malini, the king’s daughter has been taught by Buddhist monks. She wants to leave the palace and help to solve the problems outside. The Brahmins are worried and are threatening to rebel against the king. They are demanding that Malini is sent away from the kingdom. Malini leaves the palace. Many Brahmins think she is a goddess and begins to follow her but kemankar leaves the king’s garden. Malini is tired and confused. He has found that is too difficult to solve the problems outside the palace. Supriya says he has betrayed his friend, Kemankar, by telling the king about the rebellion. Kemankar is arrested and the king offers Supriya the chance to marry Malini. Supriya says that all he wants for the king not to kill Kemankar. Kemankar arrives in chains. He is proud of what he has done. He asks to speak to Supriya they argue. They then agree to die together. Because that is the only way to find out who is right. Kemankar kills Supriya with his chains. The king asks for his sword to kill Kemankar but Malini says “Fathe, Forgive Kemankar”.

The play led us to discuss the nature of woman as a decision-maker, and the role of the king as an administrator - is he unconcerned about morality but makes decision out of ruthlessness, or is he fickle, or is he, as one reader remarked, the bearer of others’ actions?

When she is accepted as a Goddess, Malini wonders the next day if she is worth the glory. Is she not showing weakness, and what of her grandiose proclamations the day before - these were the queries, formed out of the need to understand human beings, and not just limit the self to the story of the play.

This discussion, of course, will eventually lead to more thoughts on human behaviour, which is a good phenomenon only if the participant has the capacity to ponder and assimilate, else it can be painful.

The purpose of art is to engage our minds in a world beyond the performance; to connect to the setting, the words, the people - the external world, whether this external worldit be related to us or it be of imagination. The purpose of art is certainly not this alone. But this seems a good purpose in any case.

Is art not a tool for introspection. To look away, you look within, and to look within, you look at the painting, the music, the actors, who make you look away; remind you of things seen and unseen.

Art, hence, differs from entertainment. Entertainment, is, but a part of art.

Saturday, June 2, 2012

State of Action

Kartikey Sehgal

If you are a man and want to tell a girl that she has nice hair, then you go to her and tell her that she has nice hair. If you are a girl who wants to tell a man that you have nice hair, then you hint and hint and travel the world over and over and blame him for the expenses. That’s also the difference in films.

Certain films are direct. They have a message, or a story and they tell it to you straight. Using people who act straight - the actors.
Other films use lots of emotions and to drive home their point.

This is no criticism. It’s about how simple cinema can be. Or how indirect.
You take a camera and shoot people who say something, and then you move on. Or you spend time in their tears and say the same things.

'Straight-cinema' appears simple but takes immense courage, fortitude and other such text-book qualities. Simple things are difficult. So we hope that people are lost in weepy emotions. Coz when they cry, or spend their time in fear, joy and other emotions, then they will not see through the deficiencies. Such films, however, may turn out to be good. Hence, no criticism.

I will not take examples. You do that for your self. Or instead of films, look at people around you, especially in their interactions with women. There are men who only ‘beat around the bush’, flatter excessively and waste time with the other gender. And there are men who are either quiet, or talkative, but they speak straight.
And there are those who act to be straight or quiet or broody but waste their time in trying. Nothing like originality.

Anything that’s original and promising doesn’t waste time in pandering too much to others’ tastes. Now you will tell me men who are brilliant and have spent time, and lots of it, in convincing and pitching their worth to the money bags - the financiers.

Here’s the difference. It doesn’t matter to them. I have projects that I am pitching to people, some are long-pending, and a few very long-pending, but I loathe complaining to people about them, except when they are friends and I need to inform them about aspects of my life or of art.

Do you struggle in art, in making it, or do you struggle to convince people.
Both, you say. I agree with you - today.
On another day, I reply - neither.
You just do your work. Leave the rest.

You hone the art of straight talk - tell the girl she has nice hair. And then move on no matter what her reply. Action can transcend talk.

You make a film, or you don’t make it. That’s all. You do, or you don’t.
Nice state to be in.

...

When i am in the boat, I can think of storms to come, but do nothing about them, except wait.
Or I can think of the fear I had about the water, when I sat on the boat.
I still can’t do anything. I am in the water, on the boat. I look at the sky, look around, and think of other things.
I am already here.

...

Letting go, a popular usage, means doing it without fear of regret.
When I let go, I think that I won’t care what people think about me.
Letting go is a temporary feeling/affair.
So after I let go something, do I immediately let go in another event?
And keep going this way?

...

Is action the problem or is choice the problem?

...

"I have frequently experienced myself the mood in which I have felt that all is vanity; I have emerged from it not by means of any philosophy, but owing to some imperative necessity of action . . . .”
- Bertrand Russell

Sunday, May 27, 2012

The benefit of good music to men

Kartikey Sehgal

The benefit of listening to a good musician lies in the pleasure of not bothering to ‘change the number’. You are assured that none of his songs would be bad. They would adhere to standards, and the worst song would at least be of a standard that makes you call it ‘less-good’ than the others.

You don’t have to keep changing the music or go repeatedly towards the machine that is playing you the songs. For instance, J S Bach’s orchestral works [for the uninitiated, here is a very popular movement (youtube, audio only)] give you great delight as they hardly make you scamper and change any of the musical movements; there is no bad movement, there is no bad music.

You can, as an example of course, talk to a girl whilst Bach plays in the same room - I am assuming a closed space for romantic purposes. If the girl is of some wisdom, then she will not ask you to ‘change the music’ or ‘what shit is this’ - both statements implying that you are now permitted to ask the girl to leave the room or to dump her in the nearest water-body. For if she can’t appreciate or at least make peace with good music, then she can never live with you. She is not worth your time. And Bach is good music. I need not say that it would be a tragic phenomenon if you left Bach for the girl and had children with her. They would surely be crazy and grow up and kill you.


Slovakian way of treating girls who don't like
good music. 

Let me assure you that we don’t keep good music, especially good classical music, as the background to any event in life. We don’t consider it as an appendage to hotel lobbies and restaurants where music is played to often fill out the space; so that if the patrons are bored in conversations, they can catch a tune and sway to it, and thereby stay in the place and waste more of their time and money.

No. Music lovers, and real men, use music to relax - surely - and to immerse themselves in any circumstance that life doles out. Imagine. You are sweaty and bothered that your perspiration levels will cause people around you to shun you as an outcast. You are uncomfortable only till the time your well-trained ears catch a tune of Mr. Bach that some blessed soul has played - imagine it’s a lobby and you are appearing for an interview.

Now that good music has given you company, you care little for that pretty woman in tight braids who is constantly walking across the room, or any of those stern looking future colleagues of yours. You have immersed your self in the music. Music has reminded you that you have worth and imagination. That life is varied and ever-changing, that whether you win or lose today, it does not matter much. Great musicians die. Music lives. But it does not revive the musicians. You have more thoughts, all of which are superior to the fear of being sweaty.

Because of good music-listening habits, you will feel comfortable while waiting for an interview, while traveling in buses and trains and heat and sweat. You have served music and music has served you well. You are friends with an art form. You can live a good life.

This is the benefit good music has on your mind. You are assured of quality, and you become quality. Your mind has the ability to leave aside smaller thoughts.

I need not say that this requires training and practice. Or very good genes. For there are many-a-men that sway their heads to songs and music that are fit to be dumped in that water-body along with that girl you threw some time back, who now threatens to book you for assault. I say, carry Bach when you go to prison.



and show this portrait to the prisoners, who will shiver in fear.

Monday, May 21, 2012

For the love of the listener

 

Kartikey Sehgal

 

Information:

Franz Liszt was a composer-pianist (largely). He transcribed Beethoven's symphonies for piano. Beethoven was a composer. 

Wagner and Tchaikovsky were composers. Haydn was a composer and a teacher to Beethoven. Knowlede about Liszt's transcriptions here.

 

I see.

 

The idea of Franz Liszt to play Ludwig Van Beethoven on piano was to show that Beethoven had a soft touch in all the symphonies. Franz's piano played the part of bringing to notice the absolutely sublime part of the music; sublimity also defined as softness; that which does not hurt the ears; that which replaces the alleged harshness of trombones and trumpets.

 

Any music listener would need to imagine music and 'circumstance' to essentially be in touch with classical music. I define circumstance as supreme imagination. All are not lucky to possess this imagination.that

 

It is thus that Wagner, Tchaikovsky saw in Beethoven what others didn’t. Also, this circumstance of superior imagination may come now and then, making the task of the critic obsolete since there is no absolute to music except that which is easily seen as horrendously bad.

 

The listener, say, like Haydn, may one day, at an opportune moment accept that what he had previously considered as mediocre is essentially life-changing; like Haydn alluded to Beethoven’s music after listening to his Symphony no.3.

 

Is it not a pleasure to listen to an orchestra play Beethoven’s works, and then listen to Liszt play them on the piano? You realise that music has shades, a statement passed of as obvious by music lovers, but which assumes greater significance for the listener when faced with the actuality of listening to the soothing piano tones after the absolute power of the trumpets and the string section.

 

The listener, now, has to imagine the power displayed by the trumpet in the notes of the piano. A task that is of great love to the listener. A task that may define the mysterious emotion of 'love'. For love is this deeper imagination of music, and hence of life. 

 

Sunday, May 13, 2012

What people do at an auto-expo

Kartikey Sehgal

On being asked what 'what people do at an auto-expo', and not willing to speak, I wrote the following on some napkins: 

let us go to an auto expo
scratch our chins
and act informed.

like in a fashion show,
which is a gift to hypocrisy
where we watch the models
but ogle at the fabrics

let us discuss 
engines and powers - 
not of the model,
who sashays around the bonnet
moving hers in style, - 
but of the car

let us take photos of the machine
and once in a while tilt the camera,
and act in despair,
for the car's curves
have been lost
to the model's.

let us hate
the objectification of women
as we point out 
to the model
again
and again
while talking - 
'what have those creamy thighs
with a few minute moles on them
which are admittedly juicy
got to do 
with cars.
do aroused men buy more cars?'

a few lines about women issues
let us then walk...

let us then walk to the model
and ask - 
'excuse me, who can give me more information?'
staring at her face,
and as she points out the person,
stealing glances
here and there.

Then when a representative asks,
'may I help you'
you go to the washroom instead.

let us go to an auto expo
where you can't afford a single car

 


Source

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Analysing Pakistan’s Commitment to Peace – Part 3

Ananth Venkatesh

In the final part of the Indo-Pak story, Ananth says that India ought to not believe in words of peace and make concessions or promises till the proven industry of terrorism is annihilated by Pakistan.

Any Indian government, which negotiates with Pakistan when no tangible action has been adopted by Pakistan to incarcerate the terrorist, Hafeez Saeed, is a dishonorable government.

Any Indian government or think tank or media house, which even contemplates negotiations with Pakistan for the ‘resolution’ of Siachen/Sir Creek/J&K disputes, is a hopelessly unrealistic and inexcusably idealistic entity. This vision of talking is unpardonably utopian as the terrorist industry in Pakistan has mushroomed in the last 15 years.


The dangerous battlefield [source]

There have been murders of prominent Pakistani politicians such as the Pakistani Punjab’s former Governor, Salman Taseer, and the former Pakistani Federal Minister, Shahbaaz Bhatti. The ISI and the Pakistani military have demonstrated no concrete sign to India and to the global community of their full breakaway from these macabre terrorist groups who carried out the killings. No convictions of the detained Pakistanis have occurred in Pakistan in order to provide justice to the casualties of the 26/11 barbarities in Mumbai. The ISI and the Pakistani military will be the final deciders of the Pakistani relationship with India, not the democratically chosen feeble Pakistani government.

There have been mammoth instances of Pakistan fomenting ghoulish terrorism in India, with some help from some indigenous Indians. Temporarily, the Indian government is outraged and appalled and desists from having conversations with Pakistan. But then, with the passage of time, everything is forgotten and India is conversing with Pakistan again and issuing homilies in support of Indo-Pak tranquility. Indian PM Manmohan Singh emits commendations of the ‘Pakistani intentions of peacefulness.’ But the terrorists are there on that country’s soil planning their next atrocity on India, the laboratory of Islamic terroristic experimentation.


Shahbaz Bhatti: A cardinal has called for the Church to consider declaring 
the murdered Pakistani politician a saint [source]

It should be an Indian governmental principle that India will not negotiate with a Pakistani government that doesn’t deliver an onslaught on terrorism. Sagacious and realistic diplomacy doesn’t mean that India should continue to have unfettered dialogue with the Pakistanis even if anti Indian Islamic dragons in Pakistan continue to envenom themselves untouched. Talking to this Pakistani government and even mulling over any ‘peace deal’ with them is an affront to the thousands of casualties in India. These Indian casualties, who have been exterminated in crowded trains, buses, marketplaces and outside temples, deserve an Indian government that doesn’t compromise with a Pakistani administration that doesn’t whip terror on its soil.

The bottom line is that Pakistan will continue to adhere to the policy of making India bleed gradually. This policy was embraced by the Pakistani State after the 1971 liberation of Bangladesh by India during the Indo-Pak battle of 1971.

This Pakistani policy is likely to continue at least till Pakistan attains its prime goal of annexing J&K. The question is, should India let that happen for the sake of ‘peace’ with Pakistan? For any kind of ‘durable’ peace and for a wholesome ‘resolution’ of Indo-Pak ‘disputes’, as stressed by Pakistan, India will have to make territorial and administrative concessions on Kashmir to Pakistan. India will have to make some territorial concession to Pakistan on the strategically important Siachen Glacier.

Then only, Pakistan will be satisfied and there may be ‘peace.’


[sourceStill not solved. Not cared.

  • Should India make these concessions and thereby scorn the sacrifices of its military personnel in J&K, who have sacrificed their lives to continue J&K’s association with India?
  • Should India make the Buddhist, Hindu and Sikh minorities in Kashmir additionally vulnerable by making concessions on Kashmir to Pakistan? What about the miserableness of the condition of the dispossessed Kashmiri Hindus, millions of whom are not in their Kashmiri hometowns and are, instead, in piteous refugee camps and in other parts of India?
  • Should India lose the strategic advantage it has currently by demilitarizing Siachen in the absence of any foolproof guarantee from the Pakistani military that it will not try to reoccupy Siachen clandestinely?
  • Can Pakistani ‘tranquil’ intentions be trusted by India in the presence of such terrorist sectarianism in Pakistan, in the presence of copious anti-Indian Islamic terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan (and in Pak-possessed Kashmir)?

Illogical sentimentality with Pakistan will make India appear to be a friend of foolhardiness and idiocy. Indian military potency and an indefatigable resolve to place terror in an unrecoverable comatose condition will be India’s savior, not comical emotionalism. A nation that indulges in comical emotionalism on security matters will be ridiculed by the world. India can start off by executing some of the convicted terrorists in India jails, who are with the death penalty.

Monday, May 7, 2012

Analysing Pakistan’s Commitment to Peace - Part 2

Ananth Venkatesh
Ananth does not trust the peace talks of Imran Khan and charts out the path he may be taking to oust India from Afghanistan, thereby creating worse conditions for India, the West and international peace. The real messengers of peace like Burhanuddin Rabbani are being murdered while the politicos are making pacts with the murderers. Part two of three in his story on India-Pakistan peace relations. (part one)
The infrastructural robustness and the ideological verve of these Pakistani terrorist groups are largely unstained and unbroken, notwithstanding the outlawing of some of them periodically by the Pakistani government. The outlawing is so passive and ineffective that these groups regroup and rename themselves and their aims to make themselves more palatable to the global community. They reincarnate themselves as outfits of philanthropy. Pakistan can then conveniently express its incapacity to crack and illegalize these ‘charitable outfits.’

The Jamaat-ud-Dawa is the humanitarian wing of the
Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group (source)
Essentially, these ‘charitable outfits’ have the same demoniacal aspiration as their terrorist founders. One needs to look at the ‘transformation’ of the proscribed Laskhar-e-Toiba into a ‘philanthropic outfit’, which has meant that the Lashkar has circumvented the proscription on it by adorning the guise of a ‘charitable outfit’, which it may very well be, but its intentions and infrastructure, as well as finances for funding terror, still are healthy. Lashkar, LeJ and Harkat-ul Mujahideen al-Alami were involved in the many unsuccessful endeavors to bump off Musharraf, which led majorly to their toothless banning in the first place. Of course, these terrorist groups have indulged in bloodthirsty bellicosity against Western interests as well, such as the vehicular bombing in June 2002 near the American Consulate in Karachi. The LeJ is also accused of participation in the loathsome homicide of the former Pakistani Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, in December 2007.
The menace of these extremist Pakistani outfits hasn’t faded away, with many of their members forging ultra-orthodox political alliances, whose mammoth congregations have been attended by the functionaries of Imran Khan’s emerging political party, Tehreek-e-Insaaf. Imran Khan has promoted himself as the bringer of a better future for the Pakistani populace. He is, apparently, a stainless candidate unlike Zardari and some of the other conventional Pakistani politicians, who have been encircled by allegations of subornment and nepotism. Imran Khan does represent a new political fragrance for the Pakistani electorate as he is untested administratively and, hence, bereft of the grubbiness of allegations of corruption. But his standpoints on Afghanistan, on the Taliban, on the Pakistani political ultraconservatives, on the Pakistani terrorist outfits, on the international military presence in Afghanistan, etc. are fundamentally worrisome for Indian interests and strategic wellbeing.

Imran Khan advocates a dialogue with the Pakistani and Afghani Taliban to procreate orderliness in Afghanistan. Talking to these terrorist outfits, which have not hesitated to murder prominent Afghan messengers of peace such as Burhanuddin Rabbani, is a catastrophic idea, which will eliminate whatever democracy and tolerance that exists in Afghanistan today under the presence of the ISAF. Talking to the Talibani outfit will mean compromising with them if success has to be accomplished during the talks. That means that the Talibani demand for political power in Kabul will have to be accommodated. The cultural, religious, sectarian and gender bigotry practiced by the Taliban will come to the fore more openly if the Taliban acquires political potency. The objective behind the justifiable liberation of Afghanistan by the ISAF in 2001 was the extermination of the poisonous infrastructure of the Taliban. To accord the Taliban political power in any form would be to infringe the core principles upon which the invasion of Afghanistan was implemented in October 2001 by the Bush administration in the aftermath of the 9/11 carnage on American soil that was thickly assisted by the Al-Qaeda leadership safeguarded on Afghan earth by the then governing Taliban.

Burhanuddin Rabbani was the former head of the High Peace Council before he was killed in September 2011 [Reuters] [source]
The Talibani penetration of political potency in Kabul, as a part of any ‘peace pact’ arranged by the Pakistanis and even by the reluctant Americans, would be devastating for the stabilizing Western influence in Afghanistan. The Talibani access to the Afghan governmental corridors would be a blow that incapacitates Indian influence in Afghanistan, which has been beneficial for Afghan infrastructural development since 2011. The Taliban entrance into the Afghan government would mean an increased likelihood of sanctuaries being provided in Afghanistan for Taliban terrorists, who are opposed to the West and to India (non-Islamic India/Hinduism). An Afghanistan without the ISAF, even under a national coalitional administration consisting of the Taliban, will be forced to depend on Pakistani tutelage. Pakistan can take advantage of its meaningful connections with segments of the Taliban (terrorist Haqqani network) to exert considerable pressure on Afghanistan after 2014, 2014 being the year of the intended disengagement of American troops from Afghan soil.
Pakistan will then block any Indian attempt to gain a toehold in Afghani matters such as Indian investment in the Afghani economy, Indian training for the Afghani military, etc. Pakistan will subdue Afghani strategic independence to such an extent that India will be regarded as a pariah in an Afghanistan that is devoid of the ISAF and that is, subsequently, under the coercive counseling of the Pakistani State (ISI, Pakistani military). An Afghanistan, which has a central coalitional government with the Taliban as one coalitional component, will be a nation fractured by political unsteadiness, administrative procrastination and obdurate inter-ministerial divergences. In the event of a coalitional government in collaboration with the Taliban, a few ministries will have to be handed over to the Talibani hands. Such a government will be forever under incapacitating political paralysis of different degrees.

Afghan National Police officers, seen training with mock guns during a session with ISAF soldiers from the German Federal Armed Forces (Bundeswehr) at the German army camp in Fayzabad, northern Afghanistan, Monday, Sept. 29, 2008. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)
ISAF benefitted the Afghan police and civilian administration in training activities.
The Taliban, on acceding to the democratic political process in Afghanistan as part of a ‘serenity accord,’ may ensure the temporary deactivation of their armed cadres to gain international succor. However, after the ISAF withdrawal from Afghan soil in 2014, the Taliban, even if it is a part of the political process in Afghanistan then, can effortlessly reactivate the militariness of its cadres as there will be, at best, an inconsequential global military presence in Afghanistan after 2014. Reactivation of its armed cadres will not be difficult for the Talibani political wing then.
After the ISAF disengagement from Afghanistan in 2014, the whole geopolitical and geo-strategic scenario vis-à-vis Afghanistan will alter. Pakistan, through means such as its endorsement of the deadly Haqqani network, may become the major foreign player in Afghanistan and the weary West may relent. This means that anti-Indian Islamic terrorist factories could reopen in Afghanistan after 2014 and function more freely. Terrorists could be pushed from Afghanistan to Pakistan, their border being unmanageably unlawful and unruly. These terrorists could then infiltrate Indian Kashmir from Pakistani soil i.e. vintage cross-border terrorism. Anti Western terrorists could house themselves in Afghanistan after 2014 with the guarantee of receiving safe havens from the Afghan government, which has the political Taliban as its part. If the moderate pro-Indian Afghani parliamentarians protest against Talibani dictatorialness, then the Taliban could disengage from the Afghani political process and threaten to instill anarchical bloodshed on the streets.
Will the West intercede militarily then to terminate the Taliban threat?

A Taliban blast in Kabul (source)
Another full-fledged Western military intercession is highly improbable considering the Western tiredness on account of the current Afghan conflict. Pakistan will be the only country that will then trumpet to the world that it has the power to stabilize Afghanistan and kill the prospective anarchy there. This will mean, at least, that Pakistan will ‘arrange’ a very strong Talibani presence in the national Afghan government, which will represent the sidelining of other relatively broadminded Afghan political parties, with strategic conviviality towards India. Pakistan, in order to assert itself in Afghanistan, may desire and come up with a heavily Talibani Afghan government. This will typify the termination of the meaningfulness of the Indian diplomatic presence in Afghanistan as the Taliban will not aspire to do any business with India.
Pakistan shares a border with Afghanistan and India doesn’t. India currently doesn’t have a military existence on Afghan soil. It will be difficult for India to penetrate Afghanistan militarily after 2014 if the Talibani virulence for India manifolds. India will be a tragic loser.

This is the reality that Imran Khan desires, despite knowing the thick connections between Al-Qaeda, the Taliban and other Pakistani Islamic terrorist groups. Negotiations with the Taliban represent a core strategy of Imran Khan to heighten the Pakistani influence in Afghanistan after 2014 and to decapitate Indian influence there after 2014.  [Photo:"By 2014 Afghans will be fully responsible for their security' [source]]
Imran Khan aspires to see the ouster of a constructive Indian presence in Afghanistan. His sugarcoated talks about Indo-Pak peace being one of his primary goals must not make India position blind trust in him.
His alliances with the Pakistani political ultraconservatives, who have zero respect for India, his advocacy of discussions with Pakistani extremist groups to create orderliness in Pakistan and in the lawless Waziristan, his disparagement of the stableness that the Western military presence and the Indian diplomatic presence have brought to Afghanistan, etc. embody his political personality, which is unpalatable and indigestible for the idea of peace in South Asia.
He has not spoken at length about the measures that he would take to dissect the Islamic terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan. He probably never will speak at length on this matter since he doesn’t intend to do anything of this sort. India, at this stage, can derive no comfort from the electioneering and sloganeering of Imran Khan and his allies.