Barfi!

I gave barfi's music a just brief attention (when it released). When the year 2012 broke my heart musicwise (courtesy: Jab Tak Hai Jaan)... i made an attempt to listen to the other ditties of 2012. I was processing my photos & listening to music just makes the experience brilliant. 

I started with Paani Da Rang (Vicky donor)... okayish.. not quite memorable. Then heard Aga Bai (from Aiyya) simply for the quirky amit trivedi music. 

Came to Barfi... & it is playing in a loop since 3 pm this afternoon. Dont really know what Pritam has done in this album..but it is nothing less than magic. It is almost like getting those extra 5 mins for answering exam questions (idea shown so brilliantly by aircel ad)... happiness from unexpected quarters.

Carefully penned lyrics, extraordinarily simple music - it is a delight to my ears. Mellifluous tunes of Aashiyan & Main Kya karoon. Whispering beauty of Saawali Si Raat or quirky gibberishness of Barfi!. In the last one...Mohit really proves he is the king of singing gibberish.. be it Masakali or Barfi. 

Kyon...is an effortless rendition by Papon...effortless on ears too.

2 songs that i dint find spectacular are Fataafati.. & Phir Le Aya Dil ...dint give them repeat listens.

Even as I write..am soaked in the essence of barfi! Will probably dream about a sleepy village, with cute cake & pastry shops, kids cycling away along river bank & myself sitting under a tree reading a book. 

Now this is what music should do to you and...in this case..it does. 

A burial for thoughts

It is most unfortunate that human's can think. What is worse is confusing thoughts with feelings/ emotions. I feel sad & hence think this world is not a good place to live. Or I feel ecstatic & think everything can be achieved.

We as kids had our own methods of safekeeping our thimbles. Hiding it within the recesses of closets or study cupboard. The luckier ones had gardens - you dig, hide your precious & smoothen the mud.

Is there a way to dig up such a hole & bury our thoughts? Where we know our thoughts are safe - nobody to judge or question? A thought-safe that will let us store things & never allow thieves to retrieve them. Just vent & close.

How would an advt. for this safe look? "Ladies & Gentlemen.... presenting to you the Thought-safe. It is ego-proof!! You can say whatever you like & your ego wont be hurt. So if you want to tell your best friend that you still remember her birthday & wanted to wish her, go ahead! Doesn't matter that you had the most terrifying fight with her that resulted in severing all relations."

Or the promotion pamphlets could talk about how judgement-free this safe is. "Speak the unspeakable... utter the most ghastly, violent, embarrassing, cheap, sadist of thoughts. Here is one safe that shall just take in everything and never pronounce a verdict."

"A multi-purpose safe that doubles up as a confession box as well!! come one...come all" How amazing it would feel if on the date of your marriage, you were to just pull-open the safe & whisper into its nothingness - "Dear safe, I did not imagine my fiance turning into an odious jerk. I am horrified by the mere thought of marrying him. All I want to do is run away...far away from this madness & complication that I created for myself". Then you just close the lid, adjust your veil & confidently walk down the aisle as though nothing happened.

This safe will take all your thoughts, gobble them up & make space for new ones. Irretrievable. Lost forever.

Just thinking about this safe is inducing a golden yellow calmness in me... aah! peace :P


  

new season.... quite literally

The crisp breeze hits my face as I roll-down the windows of my company cab. Season's first shower has lowered Delhi temperature. I close my laptop & decide to savour nature's this offering. I missed being part of Delhi's celebration of winter arrival last 2 years.

The song from Carpenters "Yesterday once more" was playing on my ipod. Simple lyrics ... the girl talks about how she used to listen to radio when she was young.

This setting was extremely overwhelming. I was almost running a projection theatre in my mind.. I closed my eyes and saw the choicest of frames from my childhood & adolescence spent in this city. How winter was the most welcome season....always! Peanuts, bournvita, hot steaming food, fog, sweaters & blazers to hide the bulge, New-Zealand-India test match at 3:30 am! We always used to set-up the living room to watch these matches at, snuggly rajais spread over the sofa & chair. By the time mum used to wake up (at 5 am), the batting side would have almost all its wickets. Then there was the morning cup of bournivita for me & coffee for mum & dad. Mom used to give her 'expert' comments on which side would win & why. It was a picture perfect scene.

Phone starts buzzing & I am shaken out of my trance. Somebody at office had conducted some meeting with some big guy and some mail was sent to me as an action item. I smiled wryly, opened my laptop, connected to office network & pressed F9...

Kucchh

Yeh bayaan kaise karen
ki kucch hai khaali
Is kucch ka matlab
kucch hai bhi, nahi pata

So toh rahe hain par sone ka ehsaas nahi
Jee toh rahe hain par jeene ka suroor nahi

Din badalte hain dopahar mein
Dopahar se shaam
Shaam ka aalam kucch aisa
mano de raat ka paigaam

Paigaam-e-bayan kya karen
ke kucch hai khaali?
Is kucch ka matlab
kucch hai bhi, nahi pata

Usne kaha, be-waqt ke khayal hain
Tumne kaha, be-waqt ke gile hain
Waqt ne kaha, 'arre mujhse poocha toh hota'
'Khayal-e-baiyaan toh kiya hota'

Fir na kehte tum
ke kucch hai khaali..
par is kucch ka matlab
kucch hai bhi, nahi pata

Adieu Bengaluru

Dear Bangalore
Am leaving you and eagerly looking forward to get reunited with my first love..Delhi. Pretty soon tht too! You shall be missed, for you have made me meet some really wonderful people. I enjoyed campus life out-of-campus with you. I realized I love squash and that it comes naturally to me
Thats all
Shambhavi
P.S: I do not leave you with a heavy heart. Rather a one that is breezy and light, a head that is mature & rational... I know I shall not miss some people who I thought I would. Funny...the last one though!
Wow! 11 months spent in bangalore - in all.

Pond's da magical fragrance..

Ponds ki khushboo aur dilli ki sardi, both go hand-in-hand. Like the many families in India, Pond’s was our cold-cream brand for years. The containers might have changed, but the cream quality never changed – the same aroma, the same oily feel to the skin, the same squishy pulpy cream.
I have always been a personal hygiene freak and with the onset of Swine Flu in Bangalore, the frequency of my hand-wash has increased to about 1.5 times per hour. After the hourly ritual, I moisturize my hands by rubbing a bit of pond’s cream borrowed from a colleague.
Today I happened to smell the cream’s fragrance and it immediately transported me back in time – to those days when I was a school kid. Getting up in the morning to AIR’s radio program that began at 6 am sharp – vande mataram, daily news in Hindi and English, AIR’s program schedule, then devotional music followed by carnatic music.
At that time, Delhi winters were beautiful. Those were the days when I could confidently walk into school, wearing the blue blazer, as that used to cover up the flab. We used to have smoggy mornings with partial visibility. My mother used to wrap me up in half-sweater, blazer, scarf, stockings and gloves. I used to have hot bournvita with bread-rusk as breakfast. Classes used to be windy and chilly, and all the girls used to group together during recess, rubbing everyone’s hands. Dinners used to be hot rasam-rice with appalam.
Last winter was spent in Bangalore, where there are not many climatic variations – either it is cool or it is less cool. Rains bring about some change, but that again is quite temporary. Even this winter, I shall be in Bangalore.

Jab bhi dilli ki sardi ko yaad karma hoga, I shall simply rub a bit of Pond’s cream and relive those fond memories.

Work-life - part 1

My mornings are generally good. I get up early, play some random sport and have a heavy breakfast. But by the time I hit the office, it seems like half of my day has already passed. I drag myself through the 10 min walk from home to office. My face brightens up at the prospect of have a steaming cup of chai at office (the cafeteria guy makes some really nice tea and coffee). By the time I warm up to the idea of spending a whole day in office, it is 10 am. Immediately, my mind starts performing some random calculations – 3 hours to go for lunch – in 3 hours, I would have reached Delhi! Time passes rather quickly between 10 & 10:20am.
The period from 10:20 to 1 pm is what I call ‘time warp zone – 1.0’ (the 1.0 has been suffixed to highlight the ‘nerdy-cool factor’!). Time here moves rather slowly….seconds take minutes to move. This is when I lazily take out my notepad, inject a major dose of enthusiasm and plunge head-long into work. Time ticks away to 12:30, which is when people start warming up for lunch!
The lunchtime is OK. We all gather around in the conference room and have food together. Wise-cracks, wannabe Wise-cracks, sweets, Delhi vs. Mumbai debate etc. ensue during the hour long lunch session that we have.
After that, Time again gets into ‘Time warp zone – 10.0’ – a pronounced Warp-Zone, it zimbly stays still! Now the seconds get mutilated into hours… and I almost get the feeling that it is one of the dog-days!
I thought I shall deliberate further on my average work-life when suddenly the cafeteria turns up with a steaming cup of masala chai… its sweet fragrance filling my cubicle’s air.Guess I shall have the tea, warm up and plunge… have a nice day J