Category: Music

Dooba Dooba

If ever I was to sing something to impress a woman, with my bathroom singing skills, if there is a song that I would choose, it would be Dooba Dooba by Mohit Chauhan. Ofcourse I am not comparing myself to Mohit, I don’t even stand a chance. The song is that brilliant that if you give it to a donkey, the donkey could weave magic from it, I am afterall slightly better than one.

Its a really old song, from the time when I was still a kid and had some hair on my head but the song is still sounds as fresh as it did way back when I first heard it.

The Mastery of AR Rahman

AR Rahman needs no introduction. Last thing that I remember him doing (I dont watch a lot of movies btw) is the new Hero Motocorp jingle. At first I hated it. I thought it was too flowery and too flowing and was a bit of a drag. Neo, on the other hand, loved it from the word go. He even downloaded the jingle and put in his car. I distinctly remember laughing on his face when he first played it.

This week, Hero released their new TVC. Its a montage of “real” people from across the country, singing the jingle. And they are asking people to record their own version of the jingle and get a shot at getting featured in the next TVC. Good idea. But then this is not about the idea. This is about AR Rahman and his mastery. The same jingle that I hated when I heard for the first time, I loved it. Its so brilliant that I want to hum when its playing. I would not mind having it as my ring tone or caller tune. I would love to play this, along with all the other fab tracks I play every morning.

Like all AR Rahman songs, this jingle has grown on me. I dint like it initially but with repeated exposure, rather than getting bored of it, I now like it. With all other composers, you get bored when you hear something repeatedly, most AR Rahman songs, you get more attached to them. Salute to him for cooking this up. And salute to brand managers at Hero for letting this out. And salaam to Neo for identifying the genius when I missed.

Bawra Man Dekhne Chala Ek Sapna

I love iTunes. And not just because its a brilliant music player but because it has this feature called Shuffle. All the shuffle features are brilliant in the sense that they allow for serendipity, the happy accidents. I came to office, booted my PC and then put on iTunes. I clicked on shuffle and it played Bawra Man by Swanand Kirkire.

O M G !

I havent heard that song in a long long time. Months I think. And this is when I love it. Probably more than any other song. Even more than all the Lucky Ali and Mohit Chauhan ones. I love it for the lyrics, the way Swanand has sang it, the way he has written it. Its the complete package if you ask me.

Everytime I hear this song, I get lost in my world where I let my imagination take over. I can conjure images of two people madly in love. The guy is full of ambition and wants to do well in life. Like me, he is dreamy, eternal optimist, knows no rules and has no respect for the status quo. And the woman, is rock solid and is the foundation on which the guy would create his empire. The woman would act at the support, the guide, the latch that keeps the guy grounded. The two are different as chalk and cheese and are yet inseparable. They complement each other beautifully. So much so that its hard to even think of them as individuals. And I can think of so many shots! Like they sharing a Kulfi at a busy market. Or they travelling in car full of family and friends and yet talking to each other, with their eyes and looks. Or a shot in bed where they embrace each other and sleep curled up like babies. And a shot the next morning when they are in the kitchen together, getting ready to take on the world. There are so so many things that I can think of. If I ever become a film director or something, I would shoot this one before anything else. I think I can do at least this much for the great song.

Anyways, coming back to the real world, the best line I think is “Bawre sey ek jahan main bawara ek saath ho // Is sayani bheed main bas haathon main tera haath ho”. Has the entire life’s philosophy in a mere two lines. Thats all that we crave for no? Someone who we can share our lives with?

I feel Purple

Image Credits: Jerome B

The mood I am in, if someone asked me to describe it, I would say, I feel Purple. Dont ask me why. Though Purple is the color of creativity or ideas or something to that effect (a reason why CLA logo is purple), I am far far away from all such constructive pursuits.

I feel someone has sucked all the energy and vigor from me. Though I am suffering from fever, cold and cough and even a task like breathing is taking a lot of effort. So much so that I am wondering how cool would it be if we could recharge the batteries and then not bother about breathing, eating, peeing etc. In short, I really hate it when I am unwell.

I have noticed that in last few years, I get unwell at regular intervals. I have always prided in my immune system. I had stomach made of steel and I could eat anywhere and anything and still digest it. I dint have to wear any warm clothes even in peak winters. I could tolerate any extremes. But for last few years, I think after I went to MDI, my systems got fucked. Not that I do drugs or booze. I dont even smoke. But then something went wrong and I am now sick often. I need to do something about it.

Apart from that this is unrelated but I have been listen to Jo Bhi Main from Rockstar on a loop since morning. Hear it. Absolute bliss.

Love The Way You Lie

I am posting a song after ages. Have always been an Eminem fan and have wanted to be able to rap. I cant. But I can do one thing. Appreciate talent and do my bit of things-fan-do. Like posting the lyrics!

This track is called Love The Way You Lie. Copied lyrics from here.

And on second thoughts, I shall not post lyrics now, unless I have written them down. No point copying someone else’s mehnat. Go see the vid. Or may be click on the link to read.

Aug 09: Untitled

Waqt ki quaid main zindagi hai magar

chand ghadiyan yahi hai jo azad hain

inko kho kar meri jaaneja

umar bhar na tararte raho

This couplet, defines the way I want to live life. These are from the famous, aaj jaane ki zid na karo. I will not go into the history of the song but whoever wrote these lines, would have a been a mini-rockstar. Not mini, but poora rockstar. The lines are as deep as you need them to be able to touch your soul. The lines are as simple as you need them to be able to comprehend. The lines are, in short, brilliant. (I wish I had a larger vocabulary, I could have talked about the beauty of this song in more vivid details #wishfulthinking)

There are times I wonder what are all these poets made of. They must have been really sad when they wrote these things. Or may be really drunk. A normal guy, can never ever write such a beautiful song. I can actually feel the author crying and longing for love of his life. As if some part of him is being taken away by force and there is no way that bit of him is coming back. The wailing is magnificent and depressing.

Sigh!

Apart from this, today, since I am posting a regular blog post (instead of fiction, fact, non-fiction etc), I want to talk about this vid that rr sent me. Its called Move and is a part of the three part series made by a couple of guys. After I saw this video, I got really depressed. The simplicity of the idea and the brilliance of execution of this video sets this apart from all those hours of footage that is uploaded on youtube and vimeo and other websites every day. Please do watch this video.

MOVE from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

I really want to know how do people come up with so simple ideas that even a fifth grader can execute, and then pull them off to perfection, that would leave the most thorough professionals looking sideways.

And last but not the least, apologies to myself and the project that I am on, that I havent been able to do justice to todays post. It does not matter that I have to write a presentation and then catch a flight. What matters is that I made a promise to myself and I am breaking it. I know that its ok to take a day off once in a while but I am scared that this one off day might just become a regular habit and before I know, the project would be in tatters 🙁

Tomorrow, I am traveling the whole day a longish drive of about 300 KMs. I sincerely hope that I do post something interesting. I might have to use my phone to update the blog, but I shall, at any cost, do it!

Just wish me some luck.

This is day 09 in a series of 31 daily blogposts. Other posts are here.

Today, for a change, I did not write a piece of fiction. Actually I did start one but never got around to finishing it. Maybe some other day. I know that todays update is not really an update and is a sham but its ok to have one off day. But then, the important thing to note is, that you have to show up! irrespective of how you end up doing, showing up is half the battle won!

Aug 07: So Gaya Ye Jahan

Another day on the road. Another post from the phone. Since am on road, I shall write a piece about romanticizing roads. Will try for fiction. Let’s see what comes out.

Jack loved driving. And he loved nights. And the only thing he loved more than the two, was driving at nights. He had this theory. That while you are on the road, you not only burn rubber and add kilometers to the odometer, you travel within and you get closer to yourself. Ofcourse no one understood a thing back then.

Fast forward to today, while Jack is away, everyone misses him. They know somethings missing from their lives but they can’t pin point what it is. May be that intensity, or that earnest expression, or that attitude that challenged all norms. Or may be it was his armchair philosophies and theories on everything under the sun! Most of these are unspoken but they do talk about his exploits on the race track.

Back then, it was really tough for a boy of his means to get active with underground racing. Wtf, even now, its tough for any boy/man with any sort of means to get an entry into motorsports and we are talking about a 15 year old rubbing shoulders with men twice his age and grinding them to dust.

Some attributed it to his luck. Some said it was his foolhardy attitude. Some even went to the extent of saying that since he was what he was, he had nothing to loose. And the glory, the aura, that came with the podium finishes released more testosterone than a boy his age could handle. And it showed. Though he kept to himself, he was very intense. Even at that tender age, most people found it hard to meet his gaze.

Life was all good before that fateful night. They were to collect toll road slips of all the 4 toll points around the city. They could choose to do them in any order, take any road, do watever. But they had to reach the starting point fastest. To make things exciting there were no finish lines and no audience. These guys were gonna be following the racers they could catch upto.

What happened that day, is the stuff legends are made of. And yet there has been some sort of silence reigning over the sequence of events that night. That night changed Jack. He was back to being a normal 15 year old and soon faded away into the oblivion. And one fine night, when people had grown indifferent to Jacks absence (or presence), he packed his bags and slipped out of the city.

I wish I could write about that night. The race. The victory. The defeat. The brightest flicker of a nebula, before Jack and his story turned into a blackhole!

This is day 07 in a series of 31 daily blogposts. Other posts are here.

Happy Birthday Kishore Da


Did not realize that today was Kishore Kumar’s birthday. While reading for this post, I realized how little I know about him. Like, I dint even know his name! Or the fact that he was a Bengali by birth. But then, better late than never. Did read some interesting tidbits about him and absolutely adore the guy.

I dont know how many songs he would have sung during his long career but he left us with so many wonderful hits that its really tough to put in a list. In fact if you asked 100 people to choose their favorite Kishore Da song, I am sure you would get 100 different songs. Thats how Kishore Da is. To each his own. There are so many facets to his life, his personality, his work, his talents that its tough to even summarize his achievements. He is one those, jinka naam hi unka resume hai.

From his work, Pal Pal Dil Kay Pass remains my favorite. Then there is O Saathi Rey. And Mere Saamne Wali Khidki. And Jhumroo. And Musafir hoon yaaron. And Saagar Kinare/ And the list can go on and on. The wikipedia article actually does a good job of summarizing the list. And burrp has a good post as well.

He is one of those people who I really wanted to meet. And like all the other people I want to meet, I would not know what to ask him. And here an idea drops into my head. What if I make a list of people that I want to meet, along with the questions I want to ask them?

May be later. But for the time being, happy birthday Kishore Da. You truly rock!

Tu Na Jaane Aas Pass Hai Khuda

Moment I got up, I should have known that today was going to be a bad day. I missed my alarm. And why did I miss is? The damn phone was under me!

Then I got late, really late while getting ready. And since I was rushing for things, I dropped the watch – the one that I was gifted by MB23Oct. I would have dropped a hundred things a million times but they never break. And this time, the watch that I had never dropped before – broke!
And since I was getting late, I skipped breakfast. BTW did I mention that I am starting GM diet this week?
So far, having a really bad day at work. Fought with my team. Argued with clients. And am rude for no reason.
But then, the silver lining in the cloud – a song that I discovered while driving to work. The song is called Tu Na Jaane Aas Paas Hai Khuda. From this movie – Anjaana Anjaani. Its available for download here. Its so brilliant, its better than trance. Wish there was more such music.