this is it

I never thought of myself a Michael Jackson fan, but something in me wanted me to go to the ‘This is it’ concert movie. It is a behind the scenes footage of the rehearsals for the ‘this is it’ concert tour.


I have had this theory for sometime. People generally identify and stay with the music they grew up to with the tastes and style preference getting stuck from their teens. I don’t think post 22 you can really change your preferences. I think this is true for most of us. I have used this to great effect when we had bands playing at some of our client meets. I used to instruct the bands to play the right era as the right boss walks in. As long as the boss likes the song, so will the audience.

I forgot this simple rule while I went for this concert movie. Suddenly all the MJ hits came at me as a blast from the past. I found my feet tapping and the emotions running. Absolutely awesome. Black or White, thriller, heal the world…. A lot of this was the music my elder brother and sister used to listen to. In the older ear of one two in the in the house, I would get no time for my music. Hence the concept of my music did not develop. I just heard and graduated from my sister’s music – pop to my brother’s music which moved from pop to rock to hard rock. Hence there is no rap in my emotional arsenal.

Now while I would have not have touched Michael while in college, I had outgrown him, (more like out ‘cooled’ him); I found my self loving his music and his style… as I write this piece, I am listening to some of his best songs. This paragraph started with the guitar start piece of black or white and my heart just jumped a few notches in beat speed. The awesome dance moves with the crotch movement… oooo…aawww… grunts through out the song.

Thriller in 1982 was all that was west and all that could not be had in India. You could only have smuggled cassettes of Thriller and the thriller video was watched only by the priledged few. Many years later I remember watching the black or white video as it released world wide for the first time on a classy program called “the world this week’ on doordarshan. That was the first program that allowed India to see world news and video clippings. Thank you Prannoy Roy. He did comment on the irony of the lyrics while the video featured a considerably whitened MJ. I remember the video being the talk of the town in being the first time computer graphics were used in this manner. It dazzled the world and definitely my neighbourhood cricket club. We spoke about it in awe for a long time later on this. Besides the awesome graphics the big India highlight was MJ dancing next to a bharat natyam dancer. It was one of the first real India shiny place in the world. Haha. India believed it had arrived. So what if we have poverty and starvation, we have culture and see... see… even the west is now beginning to acknowledge.


Also while he dances with the Indian there are polluting factories in the back ground. Do I have to read too much into it?

B&W video here

Eat India from delhi to bombay

Trains… lovely thing they are. I always like them and I loved traveling by them. But I guess the demand on time are soo much that I rarely use them these days. Flights are it. flights are so impersonal compared to trains, so bad and ugly. There is some romance left in trains, though I don’t get to see many PYT’s in trains at all.
I went to Delhi in a flight but I came back in train. What a smart decision. The Rajdhani is an awesome experience. They keep feeding you through out the journey. Starting with water, snacks, soups (yes sir with butter and bread sticks) and dinner, with sweet dahi and ice cream. And next day breakfast. Move over cricket, its eating that’s India’s number one entertainer. I could just see all the guys in the trains getting surprised at the platter and entertained purely on the eating. The gastronomical delights score over voyeuristic or even patriotic delights. I am convinced India is born to eat. The clarion call of today’s age is Eat India! Notice how when you go on a date you normally go to eat, when you go with family you eat, when you go to the movie you eat, when you play cricket you eat, when someone dies you eat, when someone marries you eat, on corporate meetings offsites, anything we eat. All this talk about eating is making me feel hungry now. EAT EAT EAT EAT. It is not by sheer co incidence that the longest running TV show in India is, yes sir, Khana Khazana.
Hmmm coming back to the train journey… its nice not to have too much crowd to interact with. I finished a lovely book start to end. It was ‘the making of Sholay – by Anupama Chopra.’ I always liked her writing before. She writes well and the book was a delightful easy read with lots of interesting trivia thrown. A must read for Sholay fans. Aren’t we all… very nice. I read in one flat 4 hour session. I don’t think I have ever read a book start to end without putting it down. This is the first one… I even was laughing in parts. I had to control or risk the train guys thinking me to be mad. Good fun. I suddenly rediscovered train journeys. Will have to somehow figure them in my vacations again. Forced long quality time with Jispa should be quite nice. Only thing is that I used to prefer non a/c, but given the bad hygiene in trains and family, I prefer the A/c. Its far more stress free. Non a/c can get to you at times I guess. I guess, life grows on you. I would want Jispa to back pack on non a/c but I guess it’s ok either ways. The principle being that don’t complain on the heat, dust, pollution, dirt etc. I have been thru much more in my life and I would want her to go thru a lot of it as well. But who knows when she grows up what will happen. I definitely don’t prefer a soft pink chick. But then that’s a dad’s point of view today. When she grows up I might just as well give her money to fly all over. Funny thing this parenting is. Kuch long term plan hi nahin karneka… full ulta ho jayega.