A day to feel the essence of womanhood!

Quiz: When is the International Men's Day?

A rather strange question, isn't it? Adding a 'Wo' before the Men's could have made the answer easier...oh, aren't we still in the International Women's Day mode? Actually, I wonder if we need a particular day to make us realize how special women are? Doesn't a woman already know her true worth, not the one set by the society around? Perhaps she does not...perhaps it takes a celebration to make her realize what she is worth! An event celebrating womanhood...an award ceremony to award women or repute and credentials...a week long programme schedule with debates and discussions on 'The Role of Women' etc etc...it takes all of these to salute what is so special in women!

I will never forget this teacher of ours who was supposed to teach us a few lessons of FEMINISM...this was about 7 years back, but till date the paradox of her statement is something I couldn't forget! "I was sitting at home...my husband told me 'Why dont you try teaching instead of sitting at home?' and so I started teaching! Startling, isn't it? Wonder what feminism meant to her? Her husband suggesting her to take up something to kill boredom? Or is feminism or Women's Day celebrations all about with short salt and pepper hair, oversized bindis, starched cotton sarees sermonizing about what women should be doing? Post the celebrations...these same women would probably go back home and boast of the day's events to their husbands and await the slightest hint of appreciation in their eyes...after all their wives are doing something worthwhile!

Celebrating Women's Day once a year might be able to make a handful of women proud of their womanhood...but what difference does this day make to the woman who begs by the corner or the road? What difference does this day make to the woman who earns her bread by being a domestic help at one of the short haired ladies' house? What difference does this day make to the docile housewife who is raped like every night by her drunkard husband? What difference does the day make to the prostitute who sells her flesh like every night at the same price? ZILCH, is the answer...it does not! All It does it make us...the generation and the class touched by media, advertisement, publicity, hype and class consciousness, aware that we women need a special day to remember that we are special!!!

International Men's Day, by the way is on the 19th November...sadly they don't need a special day to celebrate their manhood!!!

Gulaal - A Journey...Halt 3

This was the voice that had first touched the hearts of millions of music lovers as she had sung out loud the verses written by Gulzaar Saab that reeked of the Sufi philosophy! Rekha Bharadwaj’s ardent surrender in front of the beloved lord had been a treat as she had sung ‘Tere ishq mein…raakh se rookhi, koyle se kaali, raat katena hijr wali…’ And then they continued one after another…She seems to be picking up from where she left…her last song to hit the masses was ‘Genda Phool’ from Delhi 6 in a style that is so typically hers! A perfect rustic flavour that almost smells of the earth and yet has that naughtiness that leaves a strange smile on the lips…Beedo might sound like a continuation of ‘Namak Ishq Ka’ and it could be…a mujra it is anyway. You wouldn’t be able to stop yourself from tapping your feet or giving that little nudge with your shoulder as she does a ‘Chak Mak Chak Mak’ interspersed with occasionally heavy breathing and sarangis, harmoniums, mridangas, and tablas for company.

Beedo duje thaalika lage bade masaledaar

Man bole chak mak, hai...

And don’t we all know this ever since Amitabh sang ‘Khawe gori ka yaar balam tarse’ in style? What does not belong to us is always something which appears tastier than what we have! A rather infectious song that brings an inevitable ‘thirak’ to your feet, ‘Beedo’ is a welcome break from the other serious songs in the film. And who would ever have thought that it was not uncouth to use a word like ‘bhartar’ in a typical hindi song? How authentic it sounds as she says –

Meethi si kasak chhor ke chala gaya bhartar

Man bole chak mak, hai...

And then the song goes on to give similies that can sound grossly over rated, but think about how creative and imaginative the lyricist has to be to come up with lines like –

Sankat aisa silvat se koi haal bhaap le ji

Karwat aisi doori se koi haat taap le ji

Nikle siski jaise botal ka faag jo ura ho

Dhadkan jaisi chambal mein ghora bhaag jo khara ho

Angiya bhi lage hai jaise sau sau man ka bhar

And in spite of all the chak maks, she does an alaap at the very end of the song that truly reveals the class of this woman! What voice and what style…Certainly not the best song in the album! But most certainly worth quite a few re plays…

Song: Beedo

Soundtrack: Gulaal

Director: Anuraag Kashyap

Composer and Lyricist: Piyush Mishra

Singer: Rekha Bharadwaj

Gulaal - A Journey...Halt 2

Remember the voice which haunted you with ‘Tose Naina Lage Piya Saware’ from Anwar or ‘Khuda Jaane’ in Bachna Aye Haseeno? Yes, the very disturbing and yet soothing voice belongs to Shilpa Rao who rendered her voice for this almost melancholy track – ‘Aisi sazaa’. The sadness and hopelessness in her voice echoes the silence and emptiness around as the sound of rains falling on the ground hits the ears. Close your eyes as you listen to this number and the sound of rains can almost bring the smell of wet earth as the tears which begin to flow unaware of oneself, as Shilpa sings – Palkon ki koro pe baithi nami ko dheeme se pighla bhi do.

The song, otherwise soft and not with too much musical accompaniment, has a rather slow pace and almost reminds you of all the sorrow that hit you unaware, unprepared and unconditionally. A sadness that can set in from nowhere in particular and remind you all the forgotten defeats, failures, and losses that had crippled you sometime, but then got pushed to the corners as a distant memory…it is on a rainy night like this that all that can come back and break your reserve and make you that defeated person once more, as you soothe yourself to sleep shedding the long forgotten tears that you had almost forgotten, existed! What perfect lyrics to express a helpless sorrow…

Jeevan ki raahon mein aana ya jaana bataake nahi hota hai

Jaate kahin hain magar jaante nahi ki aana wahin hota hai

Khone ki zid mein ye kyun bhoolte ho ki paana bhi hota hai

Wo pal abhi waisa hi hai chhoda tha jo jaisa wahin

Neende bhi ab sone gayee raaton ko bhi parwah nahi...

Ye zindagi aisi hi thi tumne kabhi jaana nahi

It is not going to hit you the first time...let it grow and feel the beauty of this sorrow.

Song: Aisi Sazaa

Soundtrack: Gulaal

Director: Anuraag Kashyap

Composer and Lyricist: Piyush Mishra

Singer: Shilpa Rao

Gulaal - A journey...Halt 1

The first sound of trinkets, drums and temple bells, and conch shells can make you sit still for a while before Rahul Ram bursts into a virtual battle cry!

Aarambh hai prachand bole mastakon ke jhund
Aaj jung ki ghadi ki tum guhaar do

Aan baan shaan ya ke jaan ka ho daan
Aaj ek dhanush ke baan pe utaar do…

And what intensity he carries throughout the song! Every word is pronounced with prominence and may be even a vengeance! Not a typical song, it sounds like a mantra that with the most exquisite hindi poetry found rarely in bollywood music. Tracing its roots to the Bhagavad-Gita and glorifying bravery, irrespective of Good or Evil, Mishra calls out to one and all to rise and fight. Supported by Backing music and chorus the song gradually rises to a crescendo and all of a sudden falls to a dead silence…a soft whistle changes the mood only to be shattered once again by lines written with a pen which for all we can make out is certainly sharper than the sharpest sword, Mishra writes –

Jis kavi ki kalpana mein zindagi ho prem geet

Us kavi ko aaj tum nakaar do

Bheegti maso mein aaj phoolti ragon mein aaj

Aag ki lapat ka tum bhaghaar do

Indeed, life is not just a beautiful romantic verse…it is all about the eternal struggle for survival and the challenge of looking at the enemy as well as the new day, straight into the eye…It reminded me of the poems or songs we used to almost internalize during our days of soaking into the ideologies of social activism…one particular being a rather rustic poetry by one poet, Gorakh Pandey, that reads –

Janta ki chale paltaniya hille le jhakjhor duniya…

Hille le jhakjhor...duniya...

Song: Araambh

Soundtrack: Gulaal

Director: Anuraag Kashyap

Composer and Lyricist: Piyush Mishra

Singer: Rahul Raam

Songs

Millionaire??????

OK…So we finally made it to the Oscars! Kudos to A R Rahman for putting up ‘dhols’ and Indian dancers on stage at the 81st Academy Awards. And kudos to Gulzar and Rasool Pukutty too for the smart song that is now echoing throughout the country! Any Indian will feel proud of what these men did and what they achieved.

But on a personal note – it left a rather nagging feeling for me. Sadly, reading the book before watching the movie was not a great idea at all! A few questions that continue to bother me a day after the great feat was achieved remains:

1. Why do we have to go overboard just because he won a couple of Oscars? Weren’t we mesmerized by his genius even without this recognition?
2. Why is it such a great achievement to be recognized by a body that patronizes World Cinema and has been ignoring Indian Cinema since the last 80 years of its inception in spite of masterpieces being created here continuously?
3. Why did Gulzar have to be appreciated for his poetry with a ‘Jai Ho’ which according to me and many more Gulzar fans, certainly does not feature among his best creations?
4. Why does a British screenplay writer need to bare a poverty and dishonesty stricken face of our country in front of millions of movie watchers around the globe and get awarded for that? How many of us actually read the book by Vikas Swaroop, the novelist (who the crew almost forgot to take along for the Oscars) to see what Simon Beaufoy made of the rather nice story? (Just a trivia – the book ‘Q and A’ is now called Slumdog Mllionaire, so much for a Western touch!
6. Why don’t we realize till now that the movie is actually a British Cinema shot in India with Indian character artists, to make it look Indian? Even the hero is an imported one, for heavens’ sake…are there no good actors here who could have played the lead role?
7. Is Poverty Porn all that we are left with to offer or to sell? Is India all about slums, slumdogs, dishonest people, religious riots and crooks?
8. Why can’t a Tare Zameen Par appeal to them? Or a Lagaan? Only because one looks at the middle class – the average India and the other glorifies India over the West (Even if it is in a cricket match)?

And a few pointers here as well –
- No participant on a reality quiz show is ever ridiculed by the host, on screen for being whatever he or she is by profession!
- Slumdog is not the only name by which an Indian street child can be called!
- A star like Amitabh Bacchan would never suddenly land his chopper in the outskirts of Dharavi and give an autograph to a little boy plastered in shit!
- The questions were modified as best a British could, leaving gaping disparity between the way the incident shaped the boy’s life and the reason why he could answer them. The questions in the book and the way they relate to the boy’s life are far more realistic and thought provoking!
- The boy was very secularly named Ram Mohammad Thomas in Vikas Swaroop’s book ‘Q and A’, of course with a rather sensitive story behind it – which was twisted to Jamal Malik and a rather predictable Hindu-Muslim difference angle added to sensationalize the story and add a typical Indian touch to it.

Perhaps this is a one sided theory but as far as I know they are all valid. Now, if with a typical ‘forget it and enjoy’ sentiment we choose to ignore these and bask in the false glory of the success of an Indian Film at the Oscars, well I might as well remain silent and listen to far better compositions by both Rahman and Gulzar in solitude and appreciate their genius!

Just to add…in case you would want to listen to one of the many compositions that truly shows the genius and mastery of Allah Rakha Rehman, listen to ‘Jiya Se Jiya’ from the album Connections.

Let my country awake....

Well! What do we see now? A country that is witnessing it's first sensible urban uprising against the shame that the politicians of the country have brought upon post the Mumbai Terror attack! The incessant candle marches, signature and petition campaigns across the country irrespective of the region! It bears an uncanny resemblance to a particular scene in the nation stirrer Amir Khan starrer 'Rang De Basanti'...the only difference is that over here there are no retakes and there is no end of the story after about 3 hours! The growing anger and unrest spreading among the literate urban mass like wild fire is by no means a comfort signal for the politicians. For the very first time in the history of this independent nation the people are out on a movement against politicians...and they are in huge numbers!

Politicians, the same lot who, shocking but not surprisingly, have refused to lessen their personal security at the cost of increasing the security of the people of the country! Politicians, who have just tried to monopolize the after shock situation for their own personal motives and made the stupidest of comments in public! Politicians, who have failed to react in time in their bid to save a city for a virtual terror attack unlike any other event witnessed ever before! And yet we love to believe that we live in a democracy - a country where we, the educated, and even the uneducated mass, can choose our leaders! Leaders...I wonder if we can even use such a word for the politicians the nation is full of today! Of course we can look at the likes of Milind Deora and Rahul Gandhi, but for how long I wonder!

All this while it was despair and helplessness…that has now been transformed into disgust and angst! It took a week for the authorities to sack the most unsuccessful CM Maharashtra has seen in the recent past…all because of the one glaring question – who will succeed him? It took 4 days for an uncouth, uncultured veteran Marxist and a CM of a state to feel sorry for the remarks he made about a Martyr’s family! And it is going to take many more days, weeks and months for the police to understand what they are meant to do! After about a week of the attack the Mumbai Police Guards at the first target Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus fail to hear the beep of a metal detector as a lone citizen checks the security arrangements by carrying his licensed revolver through the crowded CST! Apparently they did not hear the beep! These were the same people who refused to fire at the terrorists on the Bloody Wednesday, in spite of carrying weapons. Another shocker was to recover bags full of grenades and bombs, which by some stroke of luck did not work, among the luggage holed up with the rest of the luggage collected from the platform on the fateful day! And it took a whole week for them to find it! And the entire lot of politicians are more bothered about successors and power instead of doing something positive for the concerned population!

And yet…the citizens have started to rise…the mass congregation of about 20,000 at the Gateway of India, determined to demand explanations from the politicians was a breather…it feels nice to see the same picture in almost every major city of India…It seems to realize the lyrics I mentioned in my last post… Exactly why I love my country…No wonder Mumbai police has banned rallies!!!!

Sirf hungama khada karna mera maqsad nahi
Apni koshish hai ke ye soorat badalni chahiye…

Aaj har deewar pardo ki tarah hilne lagi
Shart lekin thi ki yeh buniyad hilni chahiye…

Dil pe rakhkar haath kahiye desh kya azaad hai!!!!!

I was watching the news last night...A Chief Minister coming to visit the destroyed site with a renowned film maker...and his deputy makes a statement - "Such things can happen anytime in big cities"...sounds strangely familiar to a dialogue by Shahrukh Khan in one of his megahits! The only difference being that he was referring to falling in love...and this statesman was talking about a terrorist attack which killed about a couple of hundred of people just a few days back! Oh yes and we have more...another chief minister tries to visit the family of a deceased soldier just to get some publicity only to be denied the permission to do so by the poor boy's father! Just where are we living?

I was suddenly reminded of a song we used to identify with during our institute days...Perhaps it does have something do with what we have been witnessing over the past few days...perhaps it does have something to do with the feeling of escapism that haunts me now and then...perhaps it is a feeling of disbelief to see my beloved Mumbai crippled! Every time I listen to this song, it reminds me of the intensity with which I had stepped out of the institute all set to change the world, the faces who wanted to make a difference to the world...of my friends whom I respect for having stayed on while I escaped, the people who made life a wonder even till date...and of course, the man who gave me this song as a gift I can never forget in my Life! And so...here goes the lines that haunt me till date...and ones that I have learnt to love...

Sau mein satter aadmi filhaal jab nashaad hai
Dil pe rakhkar haath kahiye desh kya azaad hai...

Kothiyo se mulk ki maiyyar ko mat ankiye
Asli hindustan toh footpath par abaad hai…

Jo ulajh ke reh gayi hai file o ki jaal mein
Gaw tak woh raushni pahuchegi kitne saal mein…

Boodha bargad sakshi hai gaaw ke choupal par
Ramsudi ki jhopdi bhi dheh gayi chaupal par…

Sattadhari lad pade hai aaj kutto ki tarha
Sukhi roti dekhkar hum mufliso ke haat mein…

Lad rahe hai isliye ke pyar jag mein jee sake
Aadmi ka khoon koi aadmi na pee sake…

Aaj har deewar pardo ki tarah hilne lagi
Shart lekin thi ki yeh buniyad hilni chahiye…

Har nagar se, har sheher se, har gali har gaw se
Haath lehrate hue har lash chalni chahiye…

Ek chingari kahi se dhoond lao dosto
Is diye mein tel se bhigi tui baati toh hai…

Chal padhe hai hum bandhkar sab sar par kafan
Hum rahein ya na rahein asha toh rehni chahiye…

Is nadi ki dhaar se thandi hawa ati toh hai
Naaw jar jar hi sahi lehro se takrati toh hai…

Mere seene mein nahi toh tere seene mein sahi
Ho kahi bhio aag lekin aag jalni chahiye…

Sirf hungama khada karna mera maqsad nahi
Apni koshish hai ke ye soorat badalni chahiye…

Ho gayee hai peer parzat si pighalni chahiye
Is Himalay se koi Yamuna nikalni chahiye…