Just Joe

Today I have 2 songs.

Song 1: Nilaa kaaikiRathu
Movie: Indira
Music: A. R. Rahman

This is one of my fav ARR number. I like the version of Harini than Hariharan. This track has no background music or echo effects. I recorded it in the evening through audioblog site.

Song 2: Char din ki yeh zindagani
Album: Seven
Artist/Band: Seven

Some information about this song:

The band members of Seven are from my place Thrissur. To be precise, they were students in the music academy from where I learnt music. The guitarist Sangeeth, is an award winner in Classical Guitar from London Trinity College of Music. The keyboardist Steven worked with Hariharan, composed music for a Mohanlal movie in Malayalam, and completed his 8th grade in Piano discipline from London Trinity Music College, scoring the highest marks in Asia – He is only 24 now! The vocalist Franko is a cousin of music director Ouseppachan and a music graduate from Madras University.

These guys got a deal from Kosmic Music, which is a sub of Times Music and their video was aired throughout India through MTV and Channel V.

They had a karaoke track in their CD and that’s how I could make this.

First, something off the topic.

Today’s audio :–

Song: SaagarangaLe
Film: Panchaagni
Singer: (originally) K. J. Yesudas
Music: Bombay Ravi
Lyrics: O.N.V. Kuruppu

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This post from Vatsan made me write this.

When did the Jihad start in India? I agree that Kashmir is there since a long time, because Pakistan wanted to make it a mess and used the religious extremists to get Kashmir. But what about the rest of India? Which incident lead to the Mumbai and Coimbatore riots? Which incident lead to Godhra? It was all because of the Babri Masjid demolition by the Sangh Parivar. The sad thing is people who ordered the demolition (RSS, VHP, BJP etc) were pure Brahmins who are supposed to “protect the Hinduism” in India. Their actual intention was purely political. And the people who died in these riots were poor people including all castes (majority was low-castes). Look at the Naadhapuram and Poonthura riots in Kerala. Who all died? Fishermen, low caste, un-educated Hindus while their high-caste supremos were safe and ordering the riots. We cannot ignore this fact. [Same happened with the muslims too]. And they still blame it ALL on Muslims.

The Babri Masjid incident was very shocking for every single Muslim in India. I noticed the way a friend of mine (who was very secular and was open in discussions) talked about the religious fascism in India. He then joined in some Islamic student organizations. I was really shocked to see how this single incident made people change. But who is responsible for growing this insecure feeling in them in their very own country? They are being asked to go to Pakistan, do you understand how painful such statements are?

I know how painful it is, because I had a discussion on this in the lunchtime with an ex-colleague (and now a friend) in the company in which I worked 2 years back, told me “You people are looking forward to migrated to USA or UK”. He questioned my patriotism and I’ve been so angry and I told him I don’t need his certificate to prove my patriotism. I asked him how much he read about Gandhi or India freedom fights. He doesn’t even know the Vedas or Upanishads, still he proudly say he is a Hindu and India is of Hindus. The irritating thing was he spoke to me like an Indian talking to an outsider. I told him India is not a country based on a specific religion.

I’m not here to justify the terrorism, but terrorism in all manners should be addressed.

About the Christianity, I agree that there are some convent schools that ask the pupil to attend the prayers in their chapel and I strongly oppose that. There should not be any “religious” discipline imposed on the children. Some nuns are to be blamed on this. And I read in a comment to Srivatsan’s blog that this happens in Hindu schools too. But I never heard such things in the hospitals. There are so many hospitals by Christian churches in Kerala. But not a single person is compelled to attend the religious practices in these hospitals.

About preaching religion — In the Bible, the disciples of the Christ were asked to preach the gospel to the people who don’t know it yet. So it is every Christian’s duty to preach the gospel (which most of the people don’t do, except for attending the one-hour long holy mass on Sundays). It is somewhat related to their religious beliefs. How can you deny a person’s religious beliefs? But it is always upto you to choose it or not. So what is wrong in that?

There are false leaders in all communities. So some Muslim leaders would say that Khuran asked to kill the “kafirs” (although Khuran doesn’t say that), some Hindu leaders would say “We should eliminate them for Lord Rama” etc. But that doesn’t mean the whole community is outburst into violence. Violence is always a human instinct. The difference is we find various reasons to take it out. Suppose if there was no Christains or Muslims in India, then there would be war of the castes in Hinduism itself. That happened before and during the British ruling.

As being civilized people (as we proudly say), it is our duty to heal the scars in the history and try to understand people and cultures out of our narrow minds.

Horrible scenes of Mumbai floods are showing in the TV channels. All my prayers, for the Mumbaites. Its so very sad. I called my friend Rajesh yesternight, he said everything is okay with him. I called another friend but his cell phone provider ain’t working, I think. I have emailed him too. Waiting for his response. I hope he is fine over there. It’s a very hard time for India these days. Tsunami was just over, now the floods followed by the rig accident in Mumbai.

On another note, I thank everyone who sent their compliments and suggestions on my first audio blog. Since I have only a 7-day long trial for the audioblog account, I’’m taking the maximum out of it.

This time its ballads. This track has 2 songs. Lionel Richie’s “Hello” and Eric Clapton’’s “Wonderful Tonight”. Both are my fav songs, very romantic. I recorded these not because I sing these songs well, but I love these.

*** Update from my friend in Mumbai:

We are safe here. Heavy rain at my place for the last 2 days. Now it’s almost clear. I am staying in panvel (raigad district). This place is badly effected. You cannot contact me in my mobile. In our area there is no light, no water and no food also. No hotels are open, all shops are under water. I heard it will take 3 days to restore electricity. Last night I stayed in the office. Because all the other areas were under water thats why i could not go to my place. Now its clear almost . No raining for the last 24 hrs.

I’m happy to know that he is safe there.

Preface:

I hope you guys remember I said I was learning music in an academy out here. There was a competition for the students called “Sarga Chetana”. Everyone was supposed to do their own piece of work. Compose music or write songs. I wasn’t very prepared so I decided to sing one of my own which I wrote and composed sometimes back.

Now, there is a story behind that too. Our church choir had grade A in All India Radio, Thrissur station, so we were asked to perform sometimes for AIR. About 3-4 years back we had an opportunity to sing in AIR on the day of Good Friday. The music director was busy with recording lots of work. Composing music for some cassettes. So he asked my friend Linu whether there is anyway we could get some fresh new songs. She then referred me to him and I was so shy to present my song, because I didn’t compose it based on any raga or something. And that’s not all, I wrote this song too. But fortunately, he agreed to record that song.

So that is this song. My music teacher said this song is in “Hamsadhwani” raga, although I never knew it when I composed. . You will hear some knocking in between. Don’t worry It was from my Yahoo IM. ) I forgot to shut it down while recording. He he…

Thanks to Ganesh for all his kind words and for encouraging me to post this here. (I hope the others wouldn’t slap you for this. Ha ha…).

Here is the lyrics for this song in Manglish:

Ezhu viLakkinaal deepaarchana
ninte paadha poojakkyaayi
oru maN viLakkaakumen manamathil ninnum
uyarumee archana kai koLLaNe

karunaa saagaramE, ninneyonnaake aaraadhikkaan
karayum mizhikaLil uthirnneedumee
kaNNeer kaNamoru naRu malaraai
kaNNeer kaNamoru naRu malaraai

snEha saanthwanamE, nin karathaarathil mathi maRakkaan
uyarum hRudayathin viLi kettu nee
en manathaarilaai vannaNayu
en manathaarilaai vannaNayu

Err… well, guys… ML, Kay, CB… Excuse me for I make it a mess with this art of photography. That’s why the title. I know the focus ain’t good, there is too much noise also, but this is all I could come up with my Kodak CX 7330.

I’d like to call this pic “Divine”.

I saw Sarkar yesterday. It cannot be compared to the original God Father in any way. Big B was over-acting sometimes. I wished if he could study the body language of Marlon Brando before doing this role. The story and characters are a little bit changed than God Father. Abhishek was really good. He did a good job than his pithaashree. Music was irritating most of the times. Some scenes would have been wonderful without music, but there is music throughout the film. Doesn’t RGV know how to use music in a movie? I think “Company” was more perfect compared to this movie. Also I’m fed up watching these underworld movies from Bollywood. Isn’t there someone to come up with something fresh? Sex, Underworld, NRI romance – is that all what happening??

Last week I could see a wonderful movie from Bernado Bertolucci called “Little Buddha”. Superb cinematography by Vittorio Storaro. The movie conveys some nice concepts of Buddhist view of re-incarnation. I like the idea of being born again. Where the energy in a man’s body goes after his death? I think it will be reproduced as a living thing. But I don’t believe in the crappy concept that my re-birth will be related to how I lived in this life. What I believe is if I done something bad or good I will get the results in this life itself. Before my death. “What you sow is what you reap”.

Saw another movie “Hide and Seek” – a nice horror movie. Made in the lines of Kubrick’s “The Shining”. Robert De Nero wasn’t as great as Jack Nicholson, but was good. Dakota Fanning was superb, as his daughter. She is a cute little girl. No wonder why she was selected by Spielberg for “War of the worlds”. That movie is not released here yet.

I got some DVDs this week. God Father [Part I and II], Cast Away, Road to Perdition and Sixth Sense. I’m planning to collect all my fav movies of Tom Hanks. He is a great actor.

In a dialogue in Little Buddha, Siddhartha who is played by Keanu Reeves (yes!) says “To learn is to change”. I was thinking how much I have learnt in my life this far.

I saw a comedy show about different ways of begging, when I switched on the TV in my computer. It reminded me of one incident in my last Bangalore trip.

I was about to catch the bus from Majestic in the morning by 9 and there was no straight bus to Thrissur at that time, so I had to come through Mysore and Coimbatore. Biju dropped me at the bus station and while we were talking and waiting for the bus, a man and a boy came to us. The man who looked like in his 50s said that he was pick-pocketed in the bus from Cannore to Bangalore. He said he own a tea shop in Karwar (I think that’s the place he told me) and he went to Cannore in Kerala to see his mother who is in sickbed. He said now he doesn’t have a penny to atleast get the bus to Karwar. He said it would help if I could give him the money for the bus-ticket. I and Biju were suspicious for a while, since a lot of such fake people are there. But when I heard the boy said the samething, I thought maybe that’s real, so I gave 200 bucks as he said it would get him a bus-ticket to his place and buy lunch for them both.

He asked me to give him my mailing address and he would send it back when he reaches his place. I said it is okay, but he insisted on it, he said he has a good business running in his tea-shop and he doesn’t want me to lose my money. He wrote down my mobile number also. I was impressed.

Then he left, my bus arrived and I came back to Kerala. I forgot this incident right after that. Only now I remembered it again and no money order came to my address. It is not that I wanted my money back (as I said it was all because he insisted that I gave him my mailing address), but the fact that this guy cheated me, really makes me crazy. The man in the comedy show was acting exactly like this man and used the exact words he used! (yes, believe me!!!).

How can we make sure who are really in need and who are not?

She was pregnant. And in the scanning, doctors found out that the foetus is not growing much so that the infant would have physical disabilities. She thought it is better to get it aborted than having a handicapped child. And she did. Her husband also agreed to that.

After that, she felt she did something wrong. She went to this Christian retreat center nearby. Attended a week long convention to find peace of mind. But she felt more sadness and guilt afterwards. She came back home and one day when everyone in the family was watching TV, she went into the kitchen and in a short while the others heard an explosion. The gas stove exploded but there was no need of switching it on at that time. Her body was burned heavily but she wasn’t dead. She was taken to hospital and after 2 days she died. She has two school-going children.

This happened with a cousin of my neighbor.

This post from Prakash made me think about the changing marriage system in India.

Still there are lots of arranged marriages happening in India. Majority prefer the arranged marriages. But these days, bride and groom are not compelled to marry someone whom they don’t like and the family decides upon. There are rare exceptions though. It happens in the high-class or low-class. And this is mostly because of one reason – Money. Middle-class bride and groom have more freedom compared to the other two classes in the society.

Another trend is arranged love marriages. The guy/gal just doesn’t fall in love blindly. First he/she would see how wealthy the other one is and then would “fall in love”. Such love affairs have the blessings of the family also. And then they get married in the traditional ways with dowry and stuff.

There is inter-religious marriage that is happening these days. In the last two years, 4 of my friends got married this way. 3 Christian friends (I hate to classify them on the basis of religion, but this to give you a better understanding of what I am talking about) married their Hindu lovers. 1 Hindu friend got married to a Christian girl. In these cases the wives had to accept their husbands’ religion. Hindu girls converted to Christianity and Christian girl converted to Hinduism. They say they were happy to do that because they thought it is always the best to follow the hubby’s religion to avoid any issues in the future. (What say, you girls?)

There are love marriages where the guy and gal are of the same religion too. So far all these guys are happy. I had a discussion about this with a friend if mine and we argued on some points. The youngsters have a different way of thinking and we think we are liberal. However, the society is in the same old way, especially the elder ones.

So these were the points:

When an inter-religion marriage is happened in a family, when he/she is married to someone from another caste or religion, and suppose he/she has a younger sister who would be the next bride from the family, this younger one wouldn’t get any good proposals from good families. This happens mostly in the case of women. Men are safer in this male dominated society.

Second, after the inter-married couples have a child, the problems will arise. An example was an Iyengar woman married a Christian and they lived happily after, but until a child was born. The wife was following the Christianity upto that time, but after the baby was born, she wanted to do the “upanayanam” to their child and wanted to take him to the temples. The man agreed for he didn’t want to create it as an issue and now the boy goes with Amma (mother) to temple and with Achan (father) to the church. The boy is a bit confused about which way to follow.

Another problem is created by our law. We have to fill out the columns of religion and caste in any official documents. So when a child needs to get admission in a school, and his parents still keep arguing on which belief their son should follow, what would he fill up in the form?

So now this leads to the talk whether we should demand the law should allow us to live on our own without having to fill the forms mentioning our religion and caste.

Fouund this in Babu uncle’s house. Its been there for a looong time. I took a pic yesterday.