Introducing Vanushka

Introducing Vanushka
Originally uploaded by PratishMenon

Got her on my last trip to Mumbai. I did try and look for a guitar in London but wasn't too happy... settled for this black beauty from my favourite 'Peter Pereira & Sons' in Thane...

Vanushka, welcome to the family :) Here's to some rocking times with you, and hopefully I'll get my musical days back soon..

On My Mind

Now Farhan Akhtar is not the best singer I have heard in my life but somehow he manages to bring 'soul' to this song from the yet-to-be-released Rock On! I have been listening to this continuously for the past two days, both at work and in the car :)

Tum ho toh
Gaata hai dil
Tum nahin
Toh geet kahan

Tum ho toh
Hai sab haasil
Tum nahin
Toh kya hai yahan

Tum ho toh hai
Sapnon ke jaisa haseen
Ek samaaa

Jo tum ho toh
Yeh lagta hai
Ke mil gayi har khushi
Jo tum na ho
Yeh lagta hai
Ke har khushi mein hai kami

Tumko hai maangti
Yeh zindagi

Tum ho toh
Raahen bhi hain
Tum nahin
Toh raste kahan

Tum ho toh
Yahan sab hi hai
Tum nahin
Toh kaun yahan

Tum ho toh hai
Har ek pal meherbaan
Yeh jahaan

Jo tum ho toh
Hawa ke bhi
Mohabbaton ka rang hai
Jo tum na ho
Toh phir koi
Na josh na umang hai

Tum mile toh mili
Yeh zindagi

Yeah yeah, I know it's mushy and all that, :P but then you do love 'Everything I Do', don't you?

It's a good idea to grab the music of Rock On!; done by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, it's one of the better works I have heard this year.

Which reminds me:
a) Watched Kismat Konnection - Avoidable
b) The Dark Knight - A tad too long at 2 hours & 39 minutes, but well worth your time & money. Recommended watching on IMAX.

More laterz. Cheerio!

A Way With Words - II

She: "... what is love?"
He sighed deeply as he negotiated the turn, "Love... it's just a convenient word to express my feelings for you... it's convenient because when I say 'I love you', I am saying that I can't live without you, because what I feel for you defines me.. I don't know where you begin and I end.. that I can't think of a life without you and that every breath I take is a paean to what I feel for you... Love is just a word that helps me put entire sentences in a word. I might as well say 'I XYZ you' and it would mean the same.."

Parting Shot

Didn't know I could save about 2.5 Gb of space by deleting conversations with one single person! Are 'YOU' listening? You're so kicked about Global Warming; maybe you should do the same. Reduce our carbon footprints, eh?

Always Billie

This has to be one of my all time favourite songs; thanks Mimi for introducing me to the song. Always appreciated it, never more than..

Billie Holiday - Good Morning Heartache

Good morning heartache
You old gloomy sight
Good morning heartache
Thought we said goodbye last night
I turned and tossed until it seems you heve gone
But here you are with the dawn
Wish I forget you, but youre here to stay
It seems I met you
When my love went away
Now everyday I stop Im saying to you
Good morning heartache whats new

Stop haunting me now
Cant shake you nohow
Just leave me alone
Ive got those monday blues
Straight to sunday blues
Good morning heartache
Here we go again
Good morning heartache
Youre the one
Who knows me well
Might as well get use to you hanging around
Good morning heartache
Sit down

A Way With Words

She: "How can you be in love with someone you haven't spent time with?"
He: "I am in love with someone I want to spend time with"

He's a charmer, I tell you ;)

The Nation & The Media - Who Leads Who?

At least sixty (some say it was eighty) people perished and around two hundred were injured when six bombs ripped through crowded marketplaces in Jaipur on May 13, 2008. The media relayed live images of the dead and the injured being taken into hospitals. A particular image of (who I imagine to be) a bereaved mother wailing outside a hospital remains etched in my memory - a grim reminder of the soft casualties of a grisly terror attack.

A little over a month later, there is almost no mention of the blasts or the efforts of the government in tracing the suspects. The media doesn't seem too interested either and like most blasts that happened in the past year, this one seems to be forgotten and will in all probability, remain unsolved with the perpetrators going scot free.

Cut to May 16, 2008 - the scene is the upmarket suburb of NOIDA, where a 14 year old girl is killed brutally in her own bed. The servant is suspected initially, till his own body is found on the terrace of the same flat, the following day. Once again, the media swings into action with polls, debates, interviews and what not. I speak, of course, of Aarushi and Hemraj here.

A month later, this piece of news is firmly plastered across news channels, with dedicated reporters covering the beat and trickling every single detail - every flip flop by the police, every nuance of criminal investigation and moving montages of the girl who was killed. Ekta Kapoor in her infinite practicality (and showing lack of sensibility as usual) grabbed the opportunity to weave in a story into one of her umpteen 'K serials', a move that was fortunately scuttled in time.

I can't help wondering today, who is leading who? Is it really the nation, that has connected to the trauma of the murder of a 14 year old girl, or is it a beast, made to order by the Indian media that 'believes' that this is the news that the nation should be concerned about? Can we really blame NDTV/CNN-IBN/Aaj Tak or their ilk for this state of affairs, or have we, as a nation just grown insensitive to an attack on our democracy? After all, bomb blasts do happen with alarming regularity, don't they?

Do not get me wrong. I do not in any way condone either acts, indeed, I find ghastly similarities between the two -one, an act of terror against the nation, by a bunch of misguided cowards, another, a cold blooded act of murder by - as yet unknown. Both acts were carried out by human beings with scant respect to life and their own selfish interests in mind. Both acts reinforce the sheer apathy towards human life, that we as a race have grown to embody. Every day, we, as a race, kill people - physically sometimes, emotionally mostly, to get ahead in life.

Yet, one act has horrified the nation, while the other is glanced at with a 'chalta hai' attitude.

As of the time this post was published, a Google news search for "Jaipur blasts" returns 524 results. A Google news search for "Aarushi" yielded 1,996 results.

The image of that mother comes to mind as I type this post, and I just know that something is terribly wrong somewhere. Blaming the media would be just passing the buck.

P.S. This post was on my mind these past two evenings; however, a 'forward' I got really triggered it off. See the images below to know what I am talking about.