Indian Ocean and I

Photo Courtesy: Piyush Singh (www.piyushsingh.in)

I was returning to my home in a RTC bus, sitting in a corner-- i was contemplating about the 50+ bucks spent on the audio cassette which i brought from Supreme music store (koti), i was thinking "Is this worth 50 rupees?, did i waste my pocket money?, etc.." . In those days 50 rupees was a substantial amount for me, i came back to my house, played the cassette in the tape recorder, and i was flabbergasted. The kind of music which i was hearing from the speakers of the tape recorder shook me, my ears were sensing the difference, it was a beautiful experience. All the cynical thoughts which were in my mind were erased after i listened to the music. The audio cassette was 'Black Friday' by Indian Ocean.

My ear met the music of Indian Ocean by accident, the film called 'Black Friday' was about to be released which was based on the 1993 Bombay blasts and the trailers were being shown in TV channels and thus i got to hear the music of Indian Ocean for the first time in my life. Something intangible struck me, i felt that the music was very infatuating, i decided to buy the audio cassette and tried in every music store which were in my locality but none of them had it and in reverse the guys at the music stores were asking me about the details of film. I decided to give my last try at the Supreme Music Store and to my surprise i find other albums of Indian Ocean too--but first i wanted to check the quality of the music in 'Black Friday' and then proceed with others as i don't trust my ears when it comes to music. I was on my way back to home in a RTC bus.

In the next 2 weeks i heard each and every song for around 100 times and was badly addicted. I was totally blown away by the music of 'Black Friday' and the internet music community was talking about the song 'Bandeh' which reached #2 on the music charts. I saved my pocket money and in the span of 1 month i brought all the albums of Indian Ocean.

The above mentioned things happened in the Nov-Dec of 2004.

January 2011: I just download the new song of "Indian Ocean", i didn't even look at the title of the track, i started playing it in the Media Player, after listening to the first 3 minutes, my mind traced back to the 6 year old memories. The song which i was hearing in the media player and the song which i heard 6 years back LIVE by Indian Ocean are the same.

Feb-2005, Euphoria, Vasavi Engineering College, Hyderabad.

My cousin informed me that Indian Ocean is performing in their college cultural fest, Euphoria. I was elated to hear the news and i didn't want to miss this golden chance to hear them LIVE. I was in Vasavi Engineering College, the band was on the stage and people gathered in the ground, 95% of the folk present in the ground had no idea about Indian Ocean and the slothful atmosphere was already creeping into the audience. I was bit disappointed with the crowd, nevertheless i was eagerly waiting for the band to start the show. The band performed many tracks from various albums, most of them present there were unaware of the music and they were hearing it for the first time and the very few Indian Oceans fans were in the front and enjoying the music, i wasn't in the front, i didn't shout, i was just listening and enjoying every second of the music.

Rahul Ram makes a small announcement, "We are gonna sing a new composition which is made for a film called 'Shunya', we are singing it for the first time, the name of the song is ''Bula Raha Hai Koi".

The first experience of watching the performance of band was amazing. After the show, i met the band members expect Asheem Chakravaty and took their autographs.

Photo Courtesy: Piyush Singh (www.piyushsingh.in)

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The song 'Bula Raha' has reminded me the last 6 years which i spent listening to the music of Indian Ocean. A friend of mine who disliked the music of Indian Ocean suddenly started to like them after he was impressed by the title track of 'Peepli Live'. The original track of 'Peelpli Live' song which is 'Des Mera' can be found in the album 'Jhini'.

Fake the Nation 2010

Top 10 Fakers of 2010. No Surprises, but have a look.

10. Arundathi Roy: Her beautiful so called eye-opener articles in 'The Guardian'  newspaper has made me feel that either she is the mentally retarded or she was faking, but the clever and captivating writing style confirms that she is not mentally ill, thus she made into my top 10 list.

9. Barkha Dutt: The female crusader from the journalistic fraternity is caught in an act which she consistently denies by giving laughable replies to prudent questions asked to her on twitter. Madamji i am not saying that you have done anything wrong, but you have a crossed a line which you poeple have always said about others, we cant have differnt levels of morality, can we?

8. Vir Sanghvi: What can i say?...Long back when i used to read the 'Counterpoint' column, i seriously contemplated on the issues raised by Vir Sanghvi, but now...

7. Suresh Kalmadi: I remember Kalmadiji from a long time, long back in the doordarshan era when he was selected as the IOC chief.

6. A.Raja: "My conscience is clear" ...how can it be?  Whatever.. I have only one question Mr A.Raja where are the thousands of crores stuffed?

5. Bollywood & Reality shows: Anyone who believes that the rifts between bollywood celebrities are real and who show away your emotions during the telecast of Reality shows then i say GET A LIFE

4. Manmohan Singh: Saar, you are great Saar, as you have successfully fooled the people of this country saying that you are the Prime Minister of India.

3. CBI: This C******* Bureau of Investigation... Enough said!

2. Digvijay Singh: The mentor of our eternal prince inaugurates a book '26/11-RSS ki Sazish', i dont think more explanation is needed.

1. Media Mafia: People like me who have been screaming for a very long time about the Media-Corporate-Political Nexus is now open. If you belong to the media, then you know whether you belong to this category or not.

Happy New Year!

Akira Kurosawa's Dreams and Sexuality

Yume: A Fascinating Phantasmagoria

What are dreams? Are they mere incongruous vignettes? Or perhaps obscure series of visuals that border on meaninglessness? Why does a dream occur at all? As expounded by Sigmund Freud and psychologists, who took after him, the answers to all these lie in our unconscious. Freud explicates in his Interpretation of Dreams that dreams are ‘dramatized’ expressions of ideas latent in our unconscious. Psychoanalysts perceive dreams as complex texts made up of repressed desires, memories and encounters, which come together to weave an intricate pattern of images. A dream is far from being real and is yet a hyper real metonymic representation of the dreamer's reality. A dream is il veut dire or ‘a want to say'. Herein lays the semblance between oneiric imagery and filmic montage. What are films but endeavors to connote reality from a chosen perspective, aided by the use of visuals? The similarity is perhaps tacitly acknowledged by Freud as he compares the psychic apparatus with the camera. If a film is a dream fashioned in celluloid, a dream would be a film, where the dreamer is both the creator and the spectator – an idea that Buster Keaton shall play upon in Sherlock Jr.

Given this close correspondence, dreams have often become significant subjects of scrutiny in films. Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams or Yume would provide a typical example in this context. The film met with mixed reception on its release in 1990. While some critics have been contemptuous others have admired the director's creative introspection. 

Hal Hinson of the Washington Post accuses Kurosawa of an almost profane pretension of profundity tagging the film as “pontification” and “a snooze”. He goes on to say that “Dreams seems to emerge more out of the superego than from the id.” He opines “The real problem with Akira Kurosawa's Dreams may be simply that the director's instinct to continue making films has outlived the inspiration needed for them to be worth the effort.” Vincent Canby of the New York Times, however, sees this film as “sublime” and “astonishingly beautiful”. For Canby the film stands out as an attempt where “the magical and the mysterious are mixed with the practical, funny and polemical.”

Popular opinion over the past two decades has not been so favorable about Yume. Underrated for being grandiose, lofty and preachy the film is seen as a failure in the Kurosovian oeuvre. The film has been critiqued for being a disappointing socio-philosophical commentary. Detractors of the film have fallen short of realizing that dreams are not quite about ‘what they are’ but about ‘what they suggest’. As reviewers have kept themselves busy with the ‘obvious’, what these sequences implicate has been ignored.


While incoherence has been one of the allegations against Yume, use of an entwined and connected cluster of images that pervade the film makes the unity discernible to an eager viewer. Use of visual symbols implicitly indicative of sexuality makes this film an account of a progression towards sexual growth for me.

The first of the eight dreams is Sunshine through the Rain. It starts to rain as a somber young child comes out of his house in quick steps. We as viewers cannot but think over this scene as one suggesting birth, where the house and the rain perhaps come to signify the womb and the breaking of the water. Having been born the child must now set forth on a journey to arrive at the awareness of the self. Thus despite being warned against the forbidden the boy goes to the forest to confront a wedding procession of the foxes. In Freudian parlance a dark forest has always come to symbolize the id. The foxes here come to imply the instinctive virility dormant in the child himself. As human beings masked as foxes march past the trees, their synchronized moves creates a feeling of the uncanny or the Lacanian extemité: that which is most intrinsic to us is the most fearsome as well.

Our suppressed sexuality can assume frightening dimensions if it ever becomes foregrounded. Having had his first sexual encounter, the child returns home only to find that the umbilical ties with his mother has been severed; he would not be allowed to recede back to the womb. Instead the mother passes on to him a knife that an angry fox has left for him. While the knife as a symbol is overtly suggestive of the phallus, it is also the weapon to carry out castration. For the child who has already been initiated into sexuality, life from now on shall be a negotiation between the libidinous, potent life force and the fear of castration and eventual death. The dream ends with the boy walking towards the rainbow to meet the foxes. The mythical association of the rainbow with Izanami and Izanagi, the male and the female forces of both creation and destruction in Japanese culture is a minute detail that shouldn't go unnoticed here.

The castration complex shall persist in the second dream named The Peach Orchard. Set in spring with its usual connotation as the season for mating here we find a slightly older lad enticed to the peach orchard by an illusive girl. This dream is a curious admixture of serious elements and child's fantasies. The dolls he has seen in his sister’s playroom come alive in a psychedelic sequence. As the dream unfolds, we come to know that his family has cleared off the peach trees from the orchard and these dolls, who claim to ‘spirits of nature’, are thus aggrieved. The family, here perhaps comes to imply the rule of the patriarch or the society, which demands the perpetual projection of the super ego and hence is intolerant to any lapses into the id. The family thus stands antagonistic to the ‘spirits of nature’. The boy is however allowed a glimpse of the peach orchard in full bloom by the dolls, but the fear of being castrated becomes conspicuous as the vision dissolves and the boy meets the reality of the cut off trunks. 

The girl by now has transformed into a peach tree, the only one in bloom. The dream concludes on a wistful note despite the touch of hope. The boy caught in a close-up is shown shrouded in pain – the pain of shedding off innocence.

As an almost natural consequence of the loss of innocence comes the thought of death. The third dream of the sequence deals most palpably with death. This dream called The Blizzard shows four mountaineers caught in a snow storm. As his companions succumb to the difficulties, the leader of the group tries to keep up their spirit. The peak (yet again a phallic image) must be conquered. Amidst the storm arrives death as an enchantress, who promises the warmth of ice at the denial of the flame of life. The captain is momentarily seduced by death. The lure however wears off immediately. Love is not a perverted immolation of the self but the lust to live on. As the storm ceases the camp becomes visible. The fluttering red flag representing the zeal for life is in stark contrast to the icy blue of death that is the dominant color of all the preceding frames. eros has yet again gained victory over thanatos.

The forth dream that follows is named The Tunnel. This is said to be made by Ishiro Honda. But the change in craftsmanship is not so obvious. This dream is beyond doubt the filmmaker’s indictment against the futility of the carnage called war. The dialogue between Major and the dead members of the annihilated third platoon, where the former admits his callousness is heart wrenching. But the dream goes beyond being just a critic of war. 

The arch of the tunnel as the major stands in front of it makes one recollect the arch of the rainbow in the first dream. The association becomes stronger as we look at the howling hound, which at once reminds a keen viewer of the angry foxes. The tedious walk along the tunnel is almost emblematic of a journey through the portal of birth. Having gained victory over death in the third dream this is perhaps a rebirth. As the major commands the dead soldiers to march back to their graves an act of exorcising the death drive present in himself takes place; a step forward in the journey towards the instinctive self.

The fifth dream titled Crows begins with an extreme close up of Vincent Van Gogh’s self portrait. The multiple frames; that of the camera, the screen and the portrait piled together at once make the artist's intent perceptible. This shall be a postmodern take, where the artist deploys art to comprehend art itself. ‘I’ enters into Van Gogh’s canvas and walks through his paintings to meet the painter at last. Kurosawa’s casting of Scorsese, who is himself a filmmaker as Van Gogh is itself laden with suggestions. As ‘I’, who too is presented as an artist meets Gogh; it is almost a meeting with the self. Scorsese, a filmmaker, acting as Van Gogh a painter perhaps represents Kurosawa himself on the screen. The discourse under analysis here is the relation between art and life. Van Gogh tells ‘I’ that he “consumes” nature to create his works. While the very fact that we meet the painter in his painting suggests the reverse – art consumes the artist. The relation further complicates as Van Gogh tell ‘I’ that he ripped of his ear as he was not being able to sketch it properly in his self portrait. Is it art or life, which is of greater significance? The question remains unresolved. Here too the central theme of the sequence – the conflict between the vitality of life and the fatal forces of extinction is palpable. The dream ends in Van Gogh’s The Wheatfield and the Crows. As the painter walks out of the frame, a flight of crows bursts forth, their raucous noise almost suggesting a carcass in the vicinity. The Wheatfield and the Crows is often considered the last painting by Vincent Van Gogh before his death. Use of Chopin’s Prelude No. 15 that was nicknamed by Cortot as But Death is here, in the Shadows as a background score to this dream further accentuates the association with death. But it however, must not escape a discerning viewer that the crow or the raven is associated with the creation myth in Japanese culture. Thus life has yet again defeated death. Even while death as a looming presence cannot be overlooked, life nevertheless proceeds at its own rhythm and it is man's urge to live on that makes this possible.

The sixth and the seventh dreams are titled as Mt. Fuji is Red and The Weeping Demon respectively. They are nightmares presenting before the viewers a dystopia. Both the dreams are apparently about the nuclear holocaust and its repercussions. While the environment remains a major concern with the director, these two dreams are also about perversion and distortion of human potency. This is a world where orgasmic outburst of vitality has been replaced by an erupting nuclear plant, which shall obliterate life. A Garden, where once beauty shall reside has become a barren wilderness. Mutation has morphed flowers into demonic presences that rouse fear. Men have grown thorns (suggestive of a deformed phallus). As the journey towards growth nears its culmination, these are instances when man must confront his perversions to come in terms with those.

The last of the dreams is The Village of the Watermills. In an idyllic, nameless village death and life shall be reconciled at last. The turning watermills come to suggest life reaching a full circle. ‘I’ shall at last reckon his own fulfillment in the philosophical grandsire whom he meets. The old man makes him realize that man is but a part of nature and thus must be in awareness of his natural being, which civilization often robs off. The setting is utopic and far from achievable reality. It nevertheless fits into the structure of the film seamlessly. His journey has culminated in a recognition of his potent passion for life. The free flowing canals represented his uninhibited libido that eggs him to live on (and to procreate perhaps).

Despite being apparently disparate, the eight dreams beaded together resemble a sequence of haiku lyrics; short and yet independent narratives, they together constitute a layered and multivalent filmic text, where Japanese cultural elements like the Kabuki and Noh styles of theatrics, folk music of the land and Japanese mythology have been put into effective use to create the magic realistic texture.

--By Priyanka Mukherjee

ఓ మగువ

చేతులతో చనువులను చుట్టిన ఆ స్త్రీ అందం, సిగ్గు తో తలదించుకున్న వైనం, నన్ను ఆకర్షించాయి,
అందం ఆనందానికి కారణం, ఆకారం అందనికి నిలయం,
వీపు వయారాలు మోము మనోహరాలు,చెంపలపై చక్కరకేళీలా జాలువారు కురులు,
అరమొడ్చిన చేతులతో అందాలతో పాటు, ఆడ ఆభరణాలు అరమరికతో అణచిన ఆ చిన్నది,
అణుకువ మెళకువలా కలిగిన ఆ అపురూపవతి ఆకారం కన్నులకింపుగా ఉన్నది,
సన్నని నడుము నయాగరాల కన్నా వయారంగా వంచి, చెంపలపై చేతులుంచి,
కన్నుల కాంతి వలలు ఎవరిని చుడతాయో తెలియక తలవంచిన తలపులు,జుట్టు జలధారల మధ్య చిక్కుకున్నాయి,
ఎల్లోరా కల్లోలాలు నాకు తెలియవు , కాని నాజుకైన ఈ నయనతార చెసిన కల్లోలం
నయనానందం మాత్రం నన్ను మంత్రముగ్ధున్ని చేసాయి

ఓ మగువా నీ మాయకు వందనం !!

--  సాయి కార్తీక్

ఓ సగటు భారతీయుడు

మారాలి మారాలి నా భవిత మారాలి,

ఆకలి మంటల ఆర్తనాదం, కాలిన కడుపుల కొత్తవాదం,
తీరని అప్పుల ఆర్థిక భారం, పెరిగిన వడ్డీ విడ్డూరం,
పండని పంటల పేద బతుకు, మింగటానికి లేదు మెతుకు ,
రాలిన గింజ చేసిందా నేరం, గిట్టుబాటు లేకపోవటం మరింత ఘోరం,

ఇంకా ఏన్నాళ్ళు, మారాలి మారాలి నా భవిత మారాలి,

పట్నం లో ఓ మూల పని కోసం వచ్చా, దళారీల దోపిడీ లో నలిగిపోయి చచ్చా,
పని కొసం పది మైళ్ళు వెళ్ళా, ఖాళీ కడుపుతో కాయ కష్టం చేసా,
పెరిగిన ధరలు గుదిబండై మీదుంటే, తరగని ఆశలు తల్లకిందులు చేస్తున్నాయి,
రుపాయికెడ్చా , రోగానికెడ్చా, ఏమి చెయలేక ఆశల చితి పేర్చా,

ఇంకా ఏన్నాళ్ళు, మారాలి మారాలి నా భవిత మారాలి,

కులం పేర కుళ్ళు రాజకీయం, మతం పేర మతతత్వవాదం,
పబ్బం గడిపే ప్రజా ప్రతినిధులు, వెర్రి తలలు వేసిన వేర్పాటువాదులు,
కడుపు నిండిన వాడి దగా దౌర్జన్యం, కడుపు ఎండిన వాడి బతుకు దా"రుణం",
తూటాలతో తూట్లూ పోడుస్తున్న తీవ్రవాదం, ఊరుకుక్కలా విరుచుకుపడుతున్న ఉగ్రవాదం,

ఇంకా ఏన్నాళ్ళు, మారాలి మారాలి నా భవిత మారాలి,

అవును, లేవాలి లేవాలి నీ రాత నువ్వే మార్చుకోవాలి,

కడుపుమంటలోని కసి ఎంతో చూపు ,
మండుతున్న గుండెల మంటల్లో కలుపు,
కష్టాల కన్నీళ్ళు ఉప్పెనలా మార్చు,
ఉవ్వెత్తున ఎగిసే జనాగ్రహం లో ముంచు,

అవును, లేవాలి లేవాలి నీ రాత నువ్వే మార్చుకోవాలి,

ఓ సగటు భారతీయుడు.

--  సాయి కార్తీక్

One year in Chennai

On 22nd December 2009, i was about to leave to Chennai in the 2 tier AC of Charminar Express, it was Hyderabad Winter and we still preferred to go by AC coach, as the money would be reimbursed by the company. I had very minute excitement in crossing the borders of Telugu land.

Chennai Central:

Train reached its destination, my friend and i will be escorted to the outskirts of Chennai with the help of my friend's friend. I came out of Chennai Central and took a good look at the Chennai Central railway station, the telugu films of pre-1990 era came into my mind, as Madras was the base for telugu films too.

I was struggling to carry my luggage, somehow reached 'Park Town' station, got into the local train, got down at 'Thiruvanmiyur' railway station. I was still struggling to carry my luggage, suddenly from no where there were 4 auto drivers obstructing us from moving forward, my friend's friend was saying 'Venda' .. 'Venda' .. to them, yes 'Venda' is my first tamil word. At last with the help of some good bargaining tactics a MoU was struck between the auto driver and my friend's friend. We got down at Sholinganallur, I know that non-tamil guys find the name 'Sholinganallur' as a tongue twister, my friend's friend made it easy by breaking the word into his own etymology. He said "Its simple yaar, first pronounce 'Shoe'.. then 'Linga'…then 'Nellore', now combine them and pronounce it." My friend was quick and was able to pronounce it at the first attempt and it took 3 attempts for me to get it right.

After couple of days we completed the joining formalities, staying as a Paying Guest in a 3 bedroom apartment and found a hotel which serves Tiffin’s located at Sholinganallur junction.

Dosa:

I ordered a Dosa, the Dosa was big in length, chutney was served and the hotel worker was about to pour hot sambar on the dosa, I reacted quickly and said NO, he gave back a serious look as though I have committed Blasphemy, and when I was reluctantly asking him for more chutney to complete my dosa and he was reluctantly serving chutney.

FYI: Telugu guys eat a lot of Chutney

Summer:

There are 3 seasons in Chennai, I don’t know about the rest of Tamil Nadu but for a Hyderabadi guy like me, the seasons are Hot, Hotter and Hottest. The January climate of Chennai was making me sweat a lot and I was already missing the Hyderabadi Winter. At first it was horrible for me, later I wasn’t complaining much and after that I got used to it.

I was now moderately adjusted to Chennai, one thing I could find is that there isn’t any Hanuman and Vishnu temples, this observation compelled me to read the history of Aryan-Dravidian divide. Everyone was talking about Saravana stores and I with my roommates decided to visit the Saravana stores at T.Nagar. I was shocked to see the rush in Saravana stores, I could only think of suffocation and nothing else until I left the Saravana stores. I admire people who shop for the whole day in Saravana stores. On my way back I find a Vishnu and Shiva temple.

Note: Scientifically it’s proven that there is no Aryan-Dravidian divide.

Cinema:

Maayajaal was the nearest Cinema Theater for us, and it is the biggest multiplex in India, I wouldn’t comment about the interiors of Maayajaal even though it’s owned by a political family. One thing which I will remember forever is the day when I watched ‘Ye Maaya Chesave’ in the second row from the screen in Maayajaal.

Marina Beach:

If you have read Chetan bhagat’s ‘Two States’ then you would know the Marina Beach, the book has elevated my expectations about the beach as Ananya Swaminathan refers to it as the biggest beach, but I was totally disappointed when I visited the Marina Beach due to the crowd and the beach was clearly struggling to adjust with the pollution.It has been one year and I am still living in Chennai without much complaints. Lets see how the future is gonna be.

Marina Beach

Trivia: I was in Chennai when I saw Sachin Tendulkar scoring 200* agsinst South Africa.

Update: I miss Chennai :(