The species Homo Sapiens ie you and me, has for time immemorial been intrigued by anything that defies its intellect. Like someone once said, there lives a child in all of us who with his wide eyed stare, exhibits unabashed admiration stares gawkily when things go out of the routine; a post modern Mr. Hyde sort of phenomenon. (Mr Hyde being mostly a good thing). This curiosity and marvel at the extraordinary, something that sans age or gender, pops up throughout our life cycle and can most likely be traced to the times when we were on all fours living the fun life. However present times have turned the majority of us into a phony who revels in the common sham notion that he is Superman even when he cant even spell ‘Clark Kent’. And as we carry on this flavorless lifestyle ; reveling in a juxtaposition of passive insipidness and total, sweet denial that something happens or someone comes by who catches you by the neck and shakes you so hard that you are forced back into that wide starry eyed look. Yup. the child in us has woken up and is bawling his head off.(at least the child in me). Am I going off on another one of my pointless rants. Maybe. Maybe not. This is but a rant with a higher purpose. The lazy, procrastinating musician that is me has had that smug grin slapped right off his face. And he’s not pissed period. What it provoked out of him was a long due analysis of where he stood at the moment as opposed to where he would’ve wanted to stand…mmmmmm..just a few hundred miles apart.i think??
Independence Day puts a big grin on most Indian faces. Not because our hearts are swelling with patriotic fervor but because we get a day off; a true godsend. Plus it adds up with the weekend. Sweet!!. I guess you’ve made the most of it and slept a good three days off( we mostly don’t have a party culture here so..). For Catholics, Independence day coincides with the feast of Ascension which means that attending mass is mandatory. That being the highlight of the day which had some other random happenings which don’t make the cut to be mentioned. By the time I came to my senses on Saturday, everybody had left for work and other matters that concern them and to top it up it was raining like shit. At around 10 one of the guys from my locality rang up. He wanted to check out a guitar. I was listening to some Alice in Chains and was temporarily thinking grunge. Grunge is basically a middle finger at everything that is establishmentarian. Which kinda inspired me to put on my dirtiest tee and go out, brave the rains and craters on the god forsaken roads of Kerala and get a guitar ( a pretty neat piece I should say) and then somehow manage to get back home in one piece. And friggin’ soaking wet. Come Sunday it was one of my friends betrothal. I had written the script for the function and was a bit anxious as to how the emcees would pull it off. They were 2 cuties. One of them had obviously done this before while the other simply just went through the motions and pretty much ruined a decent script.
Evening came and along with it the highlight of the week, maybe even the month. There was a piano recital by child prodigy Julian Clef at C.A.C , an arts institution nearby. Now I’ve heard big things about this dude. I happened to hear a recording sometime back, when he was about 16 and my shattered ego had me seriously contemplating leaving the scene for good. Such was the staggering level of musical brilliance and mindblowing virtuosity that saying I felt ashamed of myself would be the mother of all understatements. I remember hearing his version of Chopin’s Fantasie Impromtu in C#minor and wondering how on mother earth could a person come up with such a piece with let alone play it. And it was composed at the spur of the moment. Why God whaayyy!!!! How could you do this to meeeee??????( Joey from F.R.I.E.N.D.S).Anyhoo Ad, Harry, Me, 810 and Dags managed to get to CAC in time to catch some nice seats. The maestro himself had arrived sometime back- An unassuming boy with a lopsided style of walking who looked like someone nobody would ever take a second look at. In the meantime I engaged myself in some random socializing with the music fraternity to partly kill time and partly to renew old contacts. In music it’s all about building and maintaining your contacts. Contacts matter and hence I’m suffering. After a while I got back to my seat and Anoop and his sister Anu showed up. Anoop and me go back to my schooldays and he’s a music lover and I told him he’d better not miss this.
At 6:30, after the mandatory speeches and felicitations, a staple of any function here, Julian went to the piano and sat down to do his thing. From the moment he laid his fingers on the keys the whole of CAC was teleported to an entirely different world-one alien to every single soul gathered there- our own little Narnias’. His touch echoed tremendous power yet restraint; a powerful style of expression which bordered on the better side of drama avoiding anything melodramatic. This coupled with a polished and professional attitude and a deep bond with the instrument which belied his age convinced me beyond any shadow of a doubt that I was in the presence of a genius. I especially loved the way he acknowledged the appreciation of the crowd with a little bow and smile after reach piece. Though every piece was brilliant I especially loved his intense rendering of the Appassionata from Sonata No 27 by Beethoven. This piece had the audience on their feet whooping and cheering as though they were at a Metallica concert. Obviously we had to be reminded of the fact that we were still in kerala by a powercut which disrupted the recital during the 2nd piece just when it was heading into its climax. Some jokers came expecting a circus or something and it was good they left quickly before they could spread their joy around the place. The recital went on for about an hour and a half –a hour and half undeniably spent well. Judging from the jaws touching the floor especially from a previously cocky girl sitting a few seats away from me I was sure that the rest of the folks there were having feelings along the same lines. We were all talking about it the whole of that day and the rest of the week and will probably talk about it many more times to come- the day when we more or less blundered our way into the lair of a wizard. and of all places, in Kerala that deserves less. The world is a lot less negative when people like Julian walk its face. He gives us that much needed reassurance that good things can actually happen here. An assurance we all desperately need. On a 24/7 basis.
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Fraanships.The good, the bad and the eXXtremely ugly!!part 2
Every now and then life decides to play some sick game with you and brings in some fabulous actors who play their parts incredibly well and make sure you’re on a joy ride to relationship hell. You have this bogus illusion that these people are in fact your BEST FRIENDS EVER and are so blessed and all that to have such great people around you, who love you and listen your songs and other crap and in some strange way there is a small voice in some distant corner of you that says-‘dude! this is too good to be true. Will it last man?’. And prada!. These very people, your ostensibly best buds, will in time take out their knives and shred your little bubble and leave you feeling like a loser 10 times over. Bottom-line-Instant friendships don’t really sustain because deep down its one big, black fathomless pit of nothingness and that lovely paint that blankets the exterior will seep away once the rains come.
That being some weird intro that did not end up as I expected to this is what I actually wanted to say on this post.(you’ll get your answers to the intro on my next post). I’ve read somewhere that we of superior intellect and inferior virtues, on a conscious or subconscious level arrange our friends in concentric circles.( at this moment you might feel that ive gone hopelessly off track. Please stay with me for a little bit longer, you lovely thing) Let me expand on that statement.
At the border we have our general circle of friends who make the cut because they are not our enemies and the chances of them taking out their shacks and sticking us first chance they get, are pretty low. These are the people we meet every random day because they happened to be in the neighborhood ( thank you Spiderman!) and they have a hi-bye relationship with us. Still we don’t want them very close because they’re in fact either extremely boring or are extremely competitive that they knock you out of your limelight. But its good keeping tabs on these people because you never know when these connections might come in handy. It might even save your life( Moment of poignant contemplation). Allrighty then!.
In the 2nd circle are those friends who are pretty close but for some reason didn’t take it to the next step. These are the people whom you are pretty comfortable with having around and invariably get invited to all the parties u host etc etc. They, more often than not, have a vague picture of what’s happening in your life and you can tell them almost everything. They will back almost all of your crazy ideas though they know it will land you in a bigger shithole than the one you’re already in just because they don’t want to lose your friendship and your parties rock! Great food, great music, hardly any chicks because chicks are a theoretical concept as far as the domestic party circuit in Kerala goes.
Then there’s the innermost circle. Only the elite make it this far and once they do the do they’re staying there probably till you’re up there kissing the daisies. These are the people who know you inside out; people you’ve bared your confused soul to. And the funny thing is they are not repulsed or bored by it because of one simple reason. They Love You. And this is is the real deal my brethren (not the kind of slush they dish out each day on the media). They probably said no to a lot of your idiocy because they knew that you would end up with your tail behind your legs and you hated them for that. At least temporarily. However thats all it is..Temporary and next day, a nice treat at the Coffee shop later, we’re back baby!!!!haha. Personally these are the people I see dreams about getting old together and laughing listening to stories. stories that are being scripted right now. Like I said this is the real deal.
I’ll continue this next time at let me give you a hint-Its not gonna be as pretty as Barbie!!!!!whatever!!
That being some weird intro that did not end up as I expected to this is what I actually wanted to say on this post.(you’ll get your answers to the intro on my next post). I’ve read somewhere that we of superior intellect and inferior virtues, on a conscious or subconscious level arrange our friends in concentric circles.( at this moment you might feel that ive gone hopelessly off track. Please stay with me for a little bit longer, you lovely thing) Let me expand on that statement.
At the border we have our general circle of friends who make the cut because they are not our enemies and the chances of them taking out their shacks and sticking us first chance they get, are pretty low. These are the people we meet every random day because they happened to be in the neighborhood ( thank you Spiderman!) and they have a hi-bye relationship with us. Still we don’t want them very close because they’re in fact either extremely boring or are extremely competitive that they knock you out of your limelight. But its good keeping tabs on these people because you never know when these connections might come in handy. It might even save your life( Moment of poignant contemplation). Allrighty then!.
In the 2nd circle are those friends who are pretty close but for some reason didn’t take it to the next step. These are the people whom you are pretty comfortable with having around and invariably get invited to all the parties u host etc etc. They, more often than not, have a vague picture of what’s happening in your life and you can tell them almost everything. They will back almost all of your crazy ideas though they know it will land you in a bigger shithole than the one you’re already in just because they don’t want to lose your friendship and your parties rock! Great food, great music, hardly any chicks because chicks are a theoretical concept as far as the domestic party circuit in Kerala goes.
Then there’s the innermost circle. Only the elite make it this far and once they do the do they’re staying there probably till you’re up there kissing the daisies. These are the people who know you inside out; people you’ve bared your confused soul to. And the funny thing is they are not repulsed or bored by it because of one simple reason. They Love You. And this is is the real deal my brethren (not the kind of slush they dish out each day on the media). They probably said no to a lot of your idiocy because they knew that you would end up with your tail behind your legs and you hated them for that. At least temporarily. However thats all it is..Temporary and next day, a nice treat at the Coffee shop later, we’re back baby!!!!haha. Personally these are the people I see dreams about getting old together and laughing listening to stories. stories that are being scripted right now. Like I said this is the real deal.
I’ll continue this next time at let me give you a hint-Its not gonna be as pretty as Barbie!!!!!whatever!!
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Fraanships.The good, the bad and the eXXtremely ugly!!
I’ve always felt that school days were the best ever. That statement might dump me amongst the minority but something about uniforms and drills and punishments and all that disciplined jazz brings about a sense of yearning for those times. In retrospect you’ll realize that friendships formed in school more or less wither the test of time simply because we were innocent and the filth of adulthood had not seeped into our being yet. Comparatively, later friendships somehow seem a lot more transient; certainly more faux and it comes with a million strings attached which will in all probability leave you miserably tangled later on. If you ask me why I’d say its probably because at some point in time during that rat race simple things like trust and understanding took one hell of a nasty beating.So I guess that’s going to be what im going to talk about the next 2 or so posts; People whove been there for me and and the people stabbed me when i least expected it.
Last week Yash called me up;he was coming down from Canada and we absolutely had to jam(rocker’s code for ‘having a blast’). Yash’s coming over was like an annual Woodstock-of -sorts for me—time to let whatever little hair I have left loose and just freak the hell out. We share a special and at times crazy bond. Some dude stated one of the fundas of science a few centuries (???)back—Opposites Attract. He couldn’t get that more right. So different that we were just meant to be. That’s not to say we didn’t have our bad times as well. In fact we did but then like all great friendships we rallied back and were more thick than ever. That being said human relationships don’t exactly mirror science and there has to be some degree of character overlap however minuscule. Yash and me are Metalheads!down to the last fragment of our DNA-and we will remain that way..amen. We wanted to live the rock n roll lifestyle -Sex, Drugs and Rock n Roll. Even though the first 2 items were merely fantastic illusions of a pimply teenage metalhead (and drugs suck bigtime)and we happened to be stuck in this hole called Kerala.(Damn you foreign media) .
Yash is an extraordinary writer; a genius if you will. He had this abstract and in some ways magical way with words that our 12th grade English teacher just couldn’t comprehend. He had a hard time trying to explain his work to the teachers’ whos cumulative understanding of the language never strayed too far away from the textbooks. He has a lot of stuff happening for him;he has a scholarship(can you believe this??he’s gonna teach Americans English..i don’t want any racist undertones but How NEAT is that?????), extremely hot girl and a ridiculously wild life. Yeaaah hes having fun. I envy u dude..bigtime with all that green coloring etc .
Yash has a room in one of the premier hotels in the city that he can use whenever he pleases. Major..do we need to go anywhere else?certainly not!!we called a few people from school..guys who were part of the general circle(Buttheads all of em hahaha..these guys are killer )Yash brought along a bottle of tequila. Its amazing what a little booze can do to your senses.(Im not sure tequila qualifies as booze but what the hell we were pretty high). It has this amazing truth serum like effect. But it’s different that you not only speak the truth but temporarily live it as well .You put down that mask you’ve had all along and be You for a change minus any inhibition whatsoever. 2 shots later Abu decided he just had to swim .So we were off to the swimming pool where a few impromptu lessons from Abu had us started. I don’t quite match up to Ian thorpe just yet but Damn! swimming is one hell of a hard deed...and to think some people do it just for kicks. It sure as hell took every kick out of me. However I found much needed consolation in the fact that Yash sucks straight to hell. He has 2 left flippers(..duh). Meanwhile in a desperate effort to redeem myself I ended up almost taking out the pool border and was left with a bruised arm and even more bruised ego. Few buckets of chlorine water heavier we decided finally decided swimming was not our thing and headed back to some more tequila. After the 4th shot, tongues began to wag merrily. Stories about our conquests up to this point combined with some choice expletives began to do the rounds. I felt like singing and luckily had the sense to bring along my Yamaha c 60 classic guitar and by this time, Mudi was already in his element. Personally I think none of us sung better than we did that day. The guys and me sang some old songs from our school days. it was a friggin study in atonal singing with overdone expressions.Im sure the people in the adjacent rooms had a great time. i didn’t ask them though. Maybe they would have gotten carried away in their appreciation that I might have lost a limb or two. Afterwards calls from our prides, wondering where their puttars are, started becoming more frequent. This is one of the umpteen varieties of shit you have to deal with when you’re staying with your family.IN KERALA!!!!! Sadly, the guys had to call it a day and that left me and Yash. We went over to the Thai restaurant and had our dinner(my first Thai cuisine experience btw and it was exquisite. All programs sponsored by Yash because I’m eternally broke) and caught up on lost time. He had recently opted out of a long term relationship and was partially free man. He had a novel on the line and some sundry other happenings as well. He was pretty excited about this scholarship thing. I was happy for him because on the flipside I’ve almost had it with my life here. There is pretty much nothing to look forward to here. I think kerala had this effect of ironing out everything that is unconventional and probably is best in you, cutting and fitting until you’re just about the right size, no extra flaps. nothing and you’re left with no other option other than to fit in and join the massive sea of humanity and basically live a humongous lie. Plus I’ve been on the receiving end of some pretty bad relationships etc etc. To sum it up I was not sitting very pretty these days. The next day was a lot better because just when we were about to leave I came upon this baby grand piano in the hotel lobby. Some impromptus later( you wish) which I think had the sweet chick at the reception impressed, we were off. All good things must invariably come to an end and some hugs and tc’s alter Yash was off; leaving me to bide my time here till something better happens. In the near future I hope….
Last week Yash called me up;he was coming down from Canada and we absolutely had to jam(rocker’s code for ‘having a blast’). Yash’s coming over was like an annual Woodstock-of -sorts for me—time to let whatever little hair I have left loose and just freak the hell out. We share a special and at times crazy bond. Some dude stated one of the fundas of science a few centuries (???)back—Opposites Attract. He couldn’t get that more right. So different that we were just meant to be. That’s not to say we didn’t have our bad times as well. In fact we did but then like all great friendships we rallied back and were more thick than ever. That being said human relationships don’t exactly mirror science and there has to be some degree of character overlap however minuscule. Yash and me are Metalheads!down to the last fragment of our DNA-and we will remain that way..amen. We wanted to live the rock n roll lifestyle -Sex, Drugs and Rock n Roll. Even though the first 2 items were merely fantastic illusions of a pimply teenage metalhead (and drugs suck bigtime)and we happened to be stuck in this hole called Kerala.(Damn you foreign media) .
Yash is an extraordinary writer; a genius if you will. He had this abstract and in some ways magical way with words that our 12th grade English teacher just couldn’t comprehend. He had a hard time trying to explain his work to the teachers’ whos cumulative understanding of the language never strayed too far away from the textbooks. He has a lot of stuff happening for him;he has a scholarship(can you believe this??he’s gonna teach Americans English..i don’t want any racist undertones but How NEAT is that?????), extremely hot girl and a ridiculously wild life. Yeaaah hes having fun. I envy u dude..bigtime with all that green coloring etc .
Yash has a room in one of the premier hotels in the city that he can use whenever he pleases. Major..do we need to go anywhere else?certainly not!!we called a few people from school..guys who were part of the general circle(Buttheads all of em hahaha..these guys are killer )Yash brought along a bottle of tequila. Its amazing what a little booze can do to your senses.(Im not sure tequila qualifies as booze but what the hell we were pretty high). It has this amazing truth serum like effect. But it’s different that you not only speak the truth but temporarily live it as well .You put down that mask you’ve had all along and be You for a change minus any inhibition whatsoever. 2 shots later Abu decided he just had to swim .So we were off to the swimming pool where a few impromptu lessons from Abu had us started. I don’t quite match up to Ian thorpe just yet but Damn! swimming is one hell of a hard deed...and to think some people do it just for kicks. It sure as hell took every kick out of me. However I found much needed consolation in the fact that Yash sucks straight to hell. He has 2 left flippers(..duh). Meanwhile in a desperate effort to redeem myself I ended up almost taking out the pool border and was left with a bruised arm and even more bruised ego. Few buckets of chlorine water heavier we decided finally decided swimming was not our thing and headed back to some more tequila. After the 4th shot, tongues began to wag merrily. Stories about our conquests up to this point combined with some choice expletives began to do the rounds. I felt like singing and luckily had the sense to bring along my Yamaha c 60 classic guitar and by this time, Mudi was already in his element. Personally I think none of us sung better than we did that day. The guys and me sang some old songs from our school days. it was a friggin study in atonal singing with overdone expressions.Im sure the people in the adjacent rooms had a great time. i didn’t ask them though. Maybe they would have gotten carried away in their appreciation that I might have lost a limb or two. Afterwards calls from our prides, wondering where their puttars are, started becoming more frequent. This is one of the umpteen varieties of shit you have to deal with when you’re staying with your family.IN KERALA!!!!! Sadly, the guys had to call it a day and that left me and Yash. We went over to the Thai restaurant and had our dinner(my first Thai cuisine experience btw and it was exquisite. All programs sponsored by Yash because I’m eternally broke) and caught up on lost time. He had recently opted out of a long term relationship and was partially free man. He had a novel on the line and some sundry other happenings as well. He was pretty excited about this scholarship thing. I was happy for him because on the flipside I’ve almost had it with my life here. There is pretty much nothing to look forward to here. I think kerala had this effect of ironing out everything that is unconventional and probably is best in you, cutting and fitting until you’re just about the right size, no extra flaps. nothing and you’re left with no other option other than to fit in and join the massive sea of humanity and basically live a humongous lie. Plus I’ve been on the receiving end of some pretty bad relationships etc etc. To sum it up I was not sitting very pretty these days. The next day was a lot better because just when we were about to leave I came upon this baby grand piano in the hotel lobby. Some impromptus later( you wish) which I think had the sweet chick at the reception impressed, we were off. All good things must invariably come to an end and some hugs and tc’s alter Yash was off; leaving me to bide my time here till something better happens. In the near future I hope….
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