Hic Hic Hurray

 

Saw Carlsberg beer bottles getting loaded to a TASMAC van. 

Though I stopped drinking some months ago, thought “One small step for Tamilnadu, One big leap for the dazed up community”.

Digging Deep

We thought that he was a true Jedi master who would make his pupil the most accomplished one (or the Chosen One if you love prophetic words). 

But turns out that the Great Master himself has a lot to learn, especially on the power of silence.

 
The master here is a gentleman named Digvijaya and the pupil is a Gandhi in making. The more Digvijaya talks, the more we understand that he practices the ancient, secret, esoteric art called nonsensia!

This coke has lots of fizzzzzzzzz

At last some refreshing music.

After years of highly uninspiring, ‘custom –built’ music, Coke Studio (from MTV) which enthralled Pakistani audiences with exciting performances by top pop-quwalli talents including Atif Aslam and the likes is to open up its innings in India at 7.30 PM IST this Friday (17^th June 2011)@ MTV.

The difference between this program and the other music programs is that this program works on a jammin session mode wherein music is jammed live along when the singer sings. While other programs work on pre-defined notes, it does not often gel well with Quwwali and Hindustani music as singers are allowed to improvise.

That is why a live performance captures the soul than the studio music and that is why CDs of live performances are so much in demand. And this program does capture that soul well.

On line up for the Desi version are exceptional talents like Shankar Mahadevan, Kailash Kher etc.

How do I know vouch for the quality of the program? Go to YouTube and listen to the Pakistani version of Coke Studio. 

In this case, hearing is believing.

Singhism (From the dictionary of the silent one)

Coalition  Dharma: A new hybrid thought coined recently that is made to sound very Indian and very ancient. Refers to turning a blind eye when there is a theft, but neither the guard nor the thief is responsible for the act of theft.

Job: Refers to the work carried out as per coalition Dharma (See- Coalition Dharma above).

Coalition Partners: Refer to Mafioso (Mafia groups)

Corruption: Part of coalition dharma. Ok till not caught.

Economic Reforms: Any newer economic initiatives that has coalition dharma in mind.

Did you OPEN yet?

Sorry if that sounded like a bizarre Ad in a commercial newspaper (on a second thought, is there a newspaper other than commercial?)...

Did you check out the weekly Open Magazine from the RPG stable?

It is two week old and costs 30 bucks an issue.

I found the magazine to be much more closer (closer but not really there yet) to the GentleMan magazine of yesteryears from the Indian Express group.

A monthly, I used to luv Gentleman 'coz it was more offbeat, covering more about music, arts and lifestyle.

The magazine was blessed with an excellent editorial team which had the uncanny knack of publishing new stuff instead of stale news stories (like your regular weekly news magazines does).

But, Indian Express suddenly quit publishing the magazine in late '90s and I haven't seen anything closer to it till date.

Gentleman, had it been kicking alive today, would have been a decent answer to our eternal cravings for an magazine with a difference.

Whatever I have seen of Open in the last two weeks makes me feel that this magazine could fill that void, but still miles to go...

Random Poetry - Sangam poem by Kaniyan Poonkunranaar

Thanks to the website (http://www.cs.utk.edu/~siddhart/tamilnadu/POEMS/poem_yad.html), I have picked up the translation of my favourite Sangam poem (written between 3rd century BCE to the 3rd century CE) "Yaathum Oore Yaavarum Kelir" by Kaniyan Poonkunranaar.

The translation:
Any place is a city indeed, and all are kindred;
Good and evil do not proceed from others.
Suffering and soothing are to these similar.
Even death is not new. We would neither feel the thrill of
Calling life pleasant; nor would we out of spite
Call it unpleasant. Just as, when with lightning
The sky pours cool drops, uncontrolled,
Hurtling on rock, resounding, a raft is carried away
In the course of (a) great river of plenty,
In the course of Order is (our) dear soul carried;
Since we have benn enlightened by this vision of the wise,
We would not be amazed bt the great in their glory, and
We would even less despise the petty.

Thanks once again to the website and the translator Satyanad Kichenassamy.

To know more about Sangam literature, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sangam_literature.

First a shoe...then a wood...

First it was a shoe...
...Now we read that a wood was hurled. (http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?sectionName=HomePage&id=6a6755f9-4e43-4001-829c-ea7f0573f5de&Headline=LTTE+supporter+hurls+wooden+missile+at+Chidambaram).
Whats up Doc? It seems Indian politicians surely have become a dartboard of sorts for people to vent their feelings!
But poor thing, it's P.C who has to bear all the brunt for a collective failure...