Primal Music

My friend Ravi's recent post has a video of a very talented group rapping in Tamil. Its simply brilliant. They are so natural and make rapping look native to Tamil, though I don't understand much of Tamil.

That reminded me of another video I saw on youtube (where else!). The music in the video below is kind of primal music you can find all over rural South India. Putting two completely different things together can sometimes work wonderfully well. In this case it's highlights of a high-voltage Cricket Match and the kind of music that goes really well when you are HIGH yourself. (Speaking from personal experience of course!).

Also note the clever editing. I wish I could understand the lyrics of the song. Enjoy...

My nonsensical Mastercard Ad

This is my Mastercard Ad on recent Test series between India and England. Read this with a grain of pepper (alternative to salt in most places).

Waiting till the day before the start of Test series to buy online Live vedio streaming - like anything else in life, doing it in the last minute!

India tour of England on Willow.tv - $99.95!

Getting to know that streaming won't work on my Macbook - Mad as hell!

Windows XP for my Macbook - $179.99!

Trying to connect Windows from bootcamp to TV through DVI-Vedio adapter and learning it doesn't work - 3 hours and Super Mad as HELL!

Parallels Desktop for watching cricket on TV through Windows on Mac - $69.99!

Time off of work to watch Test Matches on weekdays - 18 hours!

E-mailing my Boss that I will be Out of Office in the mornings on either side of weekends for 3 weeks - Easy!!!

Watching almost every ball of the Test series wallowing on my couch - Heaven on Earth!!!

Watching India win their first Test Series in England in 21 years - Priceless My Brown Ass!!!
Give my $349.93 back, you Good-for-nothing-cricket-playing-stupid-India.

Santa Claus and Gandhi were in a car...

NO, I don't have a joke which begins with 'Santa Claus and Gandhi were in a car...'. I wish I knew one.

We all know Mahatma Gandhi is one person from India who is genuinely famous around the world unlike so many others who are "world famous-in-India". I always thought he became such a well known person "after" India was successful in gaining independence mainly through his principle of non-violence. I am not suggesting that he should only be judged by the legacy he left behind or the role he played in historic events. But, I couldn't have guessed him to be known whosoever in popular culture in America before India's independence.

Over this weekend I was watching a classic Hollywood romantic comedy called "it Happened One Night". The following are the lines between the two main characters of the movie.

Ellie : It's become a sort of game to try and outwit Father's detectives. I did once. I actually went shopping without a bodyguard. But it didn't last long. They caught up with me in a department store. I was so mad, I ran out the back way and jumped into the first car I saw. Guess who was in it?

Peter Warne : Santa Claus?

Ellie : (she gives a blank stare suggesting no)

Peter Warne : Gandhi?

Ellie : (again suggesting no says that it was actually her would be fiancee in the car)

I almost missed it when he said Gandhi (The pronunciation of the word was so different and moreover I didn't expect it). I had to rewind and watch it again to confirm it. The movie was made in 1934. Yes, 1934. As far as I know, at that time, few people knew of Gandhi's radical new principles and even less who believed they would ever work. It's a movie from a different time and a different world. It was hard for me to even think of the movie as a comedy. I thought of it more as a typical romance of that age. So I can only guess in what context Gandhi was mentioned. But here he was in a Hollywood romantic comedy being mentioned and bracketed with Santa Claus as a benevolent Saint.

I can only wonder if there are any mention of Hitler in Hollywood movies of that time (He came to power around the same time) and if there are, in what context?

Time of the Season

Has it ever happened to you that you remember a tune and couple of words of the song or the video or pictures you saw the song with, but you can't remember the name, the artist, lyrics and nothing more at all? And it bugs in your head so much that you want to find out which song it is at all cost, but no luck? It happens to me from time to time And some of them really bug me.

On a lazy Sunday afternoon last year, when I was wallowing on my couch watching TV. I started humming a tune of a song but all I can remember is couple of words - "who is" and "what is" and part of the tune, I didn't know if that was the beginning or the middle of a song. I remembered I had heard it very recently, couple of days before that on TV and also from some other source earlier. I starting thinking of all the places I could listen the the song from. Then I remembered I actually had asked someone what song and the artist it was. Which led me to the conclusion that I must have heard it first time on the TV and then asked someone about it. I started thinking of the possible TV shows' title songs. But nothing fit the tune or words I remembered. So the TV lead went nowhere but I firmly believed TV was the original source of that song for me.

I was into my this annoying search for a couple of hours and by then I had forgotten part of the tune. I started remembering few more words of the song. It went something like "whatis your" and "its the *something* of". I started proceeding on my other lead that I had learn't the name and artist of the song from someone. When I was ruling out all the people I knew, one by one, It just flashed (yeah, just like a light bulb) that it was with the guy I worked with. I was able to remember that I had asked him about the song when we went on a road trip couple of months ago.

I called him. He lives in Austin,TX. It was evening by then and he was in an airport waiting to catch his next flight. So I told him what remembered and I couldn't reproduce the tune that was in my head. He said I should be f***ing drunk and he doesn't know I am talking about. Pulling my hair out of my head for rest of the evening I remembered seeing some sort of visual /video with the song. Here was what I had -
1. a song I had originally heard on TV,
2. I had heard and asked my friend about the song on the road trip,
3. there was a visual associated with the song

Then, just like that, I remembered it was a TV commercial! Putting this together with number 2 (when he had played all the classic songs on the trip) led me conclude that it was an old song. I called him back again asking him to bring his song collection next time he comes to town. That whole week this thing kept on bugging me.

By this time I had forgotten the tune completely but I was sure it was a TV commercial and the commercial had green bubbles moving all over the TV screen, it had 401K written on bubbles. With that much information you would expect I would be able pull it off the internet. But no luck! Soon after that my friend gets me his collection. There were about 2000 classic songs and none of them organized. I copied all of his songs and listening to them on and off hoping that someday I could stumble upon the song. I did not have much luck with that lead either And I did what I always do best, Give it up!

Few months rolled by. I kept an eye on the commercials to watch out for the song when watching TV. One day I was out for lunch with my colleagues to our usual Pizza place. It was quite popular place among Techies in area and they played music at lunch time there. These lunches were usually good for networking with people in my field. So there were couple of new (older) guys for the lunch with us. As we were talking something serious about work then "the song" hits me "...its the time of the season..."!

I was about to jump out of the chair and scream "what's the name of the this song? what's the name of the this song?". But I controlled myself. Barely. The guys asked me if I was alright. I said I will tell them later and asked if anyone knew what that song was. The older guy said the name of the song and the artist. And then asked what was I so excited about (that pizza place is also well known among good looking women, that was the usual thing to get excited there). I just said I was searching for the damn song for sometime. They were surprised that I had even heard the song and not being old enough. First thing I did coming back to my place, was to search the collection I had gotten from my friend And there it was.

It was "Time of the Season" form Zombies. I later learned that it is one of the greatest chill-out songs of 60's. Later I saw the commercials too. It was a commercial for "Fidelity Investments". And I was right in that it had green bubbles moving all over the screen with 401K written on them. Apparently, the song has more history with TV shows.

Parva and The Great Indian Novel

I finally finished reading S L Byrappa's novel 'Parva'. I started the novel when I was in college many years back. I remember renting this one with another one of Byrappa's more contemporary novel called 'Thanthu'. Somehow, I ended up finishing 'Thanthu' first and was never able get back to 'Parva'. I knew a bit about the novel before I started reading it that it was set on the great Indian epic 'Mahabharatha'. May be that was part of the reason I did not go further than 50-60 pages.

This is one book that nobody can ever spoil it for you if you haven't read it. That's one of the things I found unique about the novel. Almost everyone from my part of the world knows the story. Its the same story with same characters but re-told in a completely different way than you ever thought possible. It is said that for 7 'Akshoyinies' (just a unit to measure number and kind of troops) of Pandavas' side there were 11 of them on Kavvravas' side. Have you ever wondered why there were many more people on the Kavuravas' side than Pandavas' side even though the battle was supposed to be 'Dharma yudda'? (battle of the righteous)

This is just one example that is mentioned in the Preface of the book by the author himslef. There are so many other things that we were told and we never bothered to think what they mean't or How those ideas came about. Byrappa makes you think about those things and in his own way, he answers most of them convincingly. If you have read any other of Byrappa's novels you will be familiar with the narrative style although this story is set in much much north of Byrappa's usual settings in Hassan District. (Woo Hoo Hassan!, my hometown). The narration seems very fast and lot of things get interlaced with each other. You get the feeling that he is just touching the events that you expect,very briefly but most of them give you the full picture needed.

It's just a great co-incidence that I was planning to read Shashi Tharoor's 'The Great Indian Novel', right after 'Parva'. When I bought the book years ago I had no idea that Tharoor's book was in anyway related to 'Mahabharatha'. I had reapeatedly heard that it was a great book and I had bought it. I think that the rough idea behind Byrappa's novel is to narrate Mahabharath's story like it actually happened, in a sociological and anthropological angle. And it seems to me that, before reading the book anyway, in Tharoor's novel he uses theme of the 'Mahabharatha' to weave a satirical story of Indian life with the characters drawn from the Indian Independence Movement.

'Parva' is an sttempt to look at 'Mahabharatha' like how it could have happened in ancient India and 'The Great Indian Novel' is an attempt to look at the historical events of Modern India (1900's) like the great Epic itself. How ironic and strange that I had planned them to read back-to-back. One in Kannada the other in English. One theme two different times. One trying to see mythological stories as history the other trying to see history as the recurrence of the great Epic. So, when I start Tharoor's book this weekend, its going to be a strange world of mythology-to-fiction-to-non fiction-to-history-to-ancient history-to-mythology-to-...

I am gona enjoy that thoroughly and screw you Harry Potter fans.