watch the old man groove!

followed by

followed by

Normally i cant handle radio. too much of crap music followed by even more crazy RJs involve with their own voice and their own stupid jokes. Jasmine loves her radio and listens to it when ever she travels in the car which is like a large and important part of her day. i cant handle it more than a few minutes. Now that Jispa has her songs on her cell phone, its interesting listening to her songs which I kind of enjoy. The other day we were just sitting on the dinning table and listening to the youtube selection of Coldplay. It was a moment of some bonding! Hah! that was a brief ephemeral moment of papa daughter having something to share.

She later asked me - am I allowed to use my cell phone as a music player. Ya sure, I answered. Of course you can, why not? She said that Mom is saying no! Hah! Jispa is one of those who likes her music and likes to listen to it while studying or while doing practically anything. Anything besides swimming. Before swimming I am not allowed to listen to the radio, a song or even sing one. Because then it gets stuck in her head while swimming and nothing is more irritating that that. I had gotten her a nice set of JBL headphones. Jasmine is also right, music is also a source of distraction as she constantly fiddles with her song list when she is listening to it, even when she is studying or doing something. And mom doesn't let her listen to music with her headphones on. I am assuming its because then she wont listen to anything mom shouts out for or possibly she would listen to it too loud. hmmm.

I asked her if she would like a good music system that plays music via bluetooth from her cell phone. Wouldn't that be cool. I have been trying get a good system at home for some time. Jasmine listens to music while cooking and my servant from 10 years, Deviki listens to it while doing her work and now Jispa. AND I HATE MY UGLY RADIO AT HOME. It sounds like shit. Its a old cheap box which we bought as a cheap cheap thing when we had less money. After that I have been after Jasmine to upgrade but she refuses. I cant listen to music on that crap boom box. So now that Jispa has come of age, I am going to but one just for her. Any decent good one that plays bluetooth and possibly has a radio for Jasmine and Devki’s sake. Lets see, that would be a good gift for her. After all what is a teenagers life if she doesn't get a music system as  gift from her dad!

While driving a few days before I saw this ad for a retro radio station on the a billboard and I knew I had to just tune in. Dam cool. You know you are old when a retro music station is belting out numbers that you just loved listening to as you were growing up. Aint that the cool old thing to do. I guess they probably appeal to the 40 year old who still love listening to songs that he grew up to. They re the perfect audience with all the money in the world. A 40 year old. The young kid has got no money and a fleeting loyalty and of course internet music that besides them no one else listens to! 

So today morning when i was coming to office I put on the radio to the retro channel and I heard the awesome tracks back to back - Om shanti om, yard aa haha hai an then the heavily inspired Jumma chum de de. I couldn't help singing these tracks and grooving to these beats while driving. People would have thought I was a joker but it was great. These are amazing tracks and filled my mind with a ton of positivity and energy, not that I think I need it early morning but a little more spring wouldn't hurt at all.

So that was fun and this radio channels dded some meaning to my morning commute today! yo man!

ore o parevda

Somebody gave me a collection of songs which included a lot of unplugged from MTV. These were some awesome songs sang unplugged by these great singers. Jispa has a musical ear. This was confirmed to me by her music teacher in school. She also listens to a lot of music thanks to jasmine who keeps the radio on whenever she is in the car. Music is something that has in many ways missed me by. I can hear some amount of music but not too much of. I find it distracting or I think worse – pointless  - after a point of time. It is amazing but not my passion. I am weird I guess in this respect.

With my analytical brain I possibly try to over analyse the music and in the process I possibly don’t enjoy it at all. Amongst the music I enjoy – I love good fusion music. I remember once dad listening to fusion music on the radio. I think was the government AM channel. I was asleep and I remember waking up slowly to the music which was in its last fast tempo.  Dad also I think liked his music. We had a big stereo in the house in Dubai. It was big sexy looking Sanyo with a recorder and all. I remember listening to some classics – especially the songs and dialogues of Sholay!

Jispa and I have had some interactions on music. I have tried to get her to listen to some of the music I like. I remember especially eth sound track of Bunty and Babli which we ejoyed listening to. The other was of course – my all-time fav – With or without you by U2. But nothing consistent. So this time I suddenly have started listening to the unplugged Indian songs.  On the menu of the car – the song name was flashing with the Unplugged suffix. Jispa asked me what unplugged was. While explaining the same – I had an interesting discussion on the Unplugged genre. Here the singer sings with no electronic instruments and has only acoustic to back him up. The focus is on eth singer and we agreed that the singer in many ways is infusing his soul, his version, his life into the song. He changes the temp a bit, he adds a bit of his variations while singing and overall it creates a different experience. Jispa even felt that singer is changing the lyrics. I guess – he reorders them basis his liking. But clearly the singer is in focus and that I what makes the experience interesting.

Another thing I learnt from the kids in office is the amazing breath of coke studio. They too take music and allow the artistes to reinterpret it and reimagine and to have conversations with it. With multiple artistes coming together in a melting pot of sorts. What I found most interesting is that cool young people showed me these songs. I was young and cool (hopefully cool) cool was definitely not hindi and definitely not this kind of melting pots of classical, folk and fusion. It’s interesting that not only is MTV doing this but it’s something that is resonating with the people that are cool. I would love to know how this works across India. This kind of studio set up mish mash was the exclusive domain of Doordarshan in my time with only oldies watching it.

Wow. Here listen to this episode. I love the explanations and the discussion of the artistes on what they want to achieve in the songs and how they bring them all together. The first song in many ways in as ode to Jispa – my daughter - ore o parevda tu kale udi jay re. Dear birdie – you can fly away tomorrow, today stay over once with us. Hah!

But all there are three songs in this and all of them are interesting with cute back stories on the arrangements…

I sure wish that we as aq family were able to let Jispa learn the guitar. In her swimming and studies – Guitar got the boot. I don’t forgive myself for this. Dam shit!

an umbrella of fantasy

It’s been one of my parenting dreams, to enjoy a good movie with Jispa. Jispa’s and my taste in movies don’t exactly match. But it’s getting there. Till a long period of time she was stuck in feel good animation. Slowly she moved on to the Avengers kind of stories and I think she even watched a few X- men series. But there was hardly anything that I could be really happy with. Once long before I watched Gandhi with her. She was still pretty small at the time. I think she was hardly 8 years old. I think I have blogged about it. At the end she was in tears as Gandhi was shot and she famously asked – “The British did not kill Gandhi? We Indians only killed him?” Epic moment in growing up.

So every time at Abbas Library where we borrow the movies, Jispa and me have an epic fight. Which movie to see. She ends up seeing movies I hate. I hate sweet cute movies meant for ‘family’ and that I get so worked up over. And I am done with animation movies. I have seen so many that I hardly can tolerate any new ones. The really fresh animation content aka Kung Fu panda is hard to come by anymore. So we always spend a long time at the library trying to get this right. most of the time we end up taking either her movie or my movie in which case she is not interested / permitted to see it. Hardly any properly family movie that the family enjoys.

Just this weekend – I saw ‘Saving Mr Banks’ on the library display. An Oscar kind of movie? Would Jispa really enjoy it? But then it’s produced by Disney and has the ‘Disney’ label on it. It is possibly quite an interesting one. So we took it home and we began watching it at night. Jasmine reminds me of my dad. Whenever a movie starts my dad would simply go to sleep. Jasmine too just dozes of through the movies. She is just too tired to watch a movie at night. And I guess the TV screen gives out some relaxing signals as well. I guess if we are forced to sit in one place and free our minds – they simply just doze off. I remember my Yoga classes.

But then Jispa and I were watching this movie and we were commenting on it. The movie is about how Disney broke their head with the Author of Mary Poppins while trying to get the script and screen play right for the movie. Of course I am assuming that only a genesis of the idea is real with a lot of fiction thrown in for making it an engaging screen play. But forget all those inanities. Just watch the movie for the amazing characters. Especially that of the author PL Travers. Emma does a wonderful job with her uptight English portrayal and her amazing use of English to spew acerbic around her. Jispa and I were so much in love with her character. In sharp contrast was Walt Disney. Full of life, American capitalist spreading joy in the world, for unashamed gains. And then you contrast with her flashback, where she sees her fun dad succumb to alcohol. I loved the movie and so did Jispa.

We discussed it for some time and we both enjoyed it when in the flash back, her Aunt (the Mary Poppins inspiration) comes to her home.

Afterwards while we were discussing the movie, I spoke to Jispa about my views on alcohol. I explained that I don’t see anything hugely wrong in drinking. Nopes, it’s not necessarily a bad thing but then there are other ramifications to it. I explained what my dad used to say. Drinking a glass is not bad. The problem is that it doesn’t stop there.  That’s when it gets bad. I explained that when we go on a holiday, I go so that we spend time with each other. I see families where the dad sits at the table with his drink, while the family looks on. Sure he enjoys his beer, but I see that as time that I waste away from my family. I want to spend time with Jispa and Jasmine and why should I drink in that time. Plus she also saw the ill effects in the movie from drinking.

That was my chat about drinking to her. Drinking smoking etc are difficult topics to talk about. When Jispa gets older it’s going to be her choice on what she wants to do. I would surely not like her to start this when she is younger than 18. But its not like they really will tell you when they start. That’s my problem. I don’t like it but I don’t really want to oppose it. My views are my views. They remain my views, I don’t want to impose them but I would surely like to them to influence towards a choice to be made. I just think that the choice is not favorably loaded on your side. So that’s that!

But it still was a lovely movie and I loved watching it with Jispa.

Bonus song : what else chim chimeree from Mary Poppins. It was very nicely used in this movie.

Also the final song which served as the ultimate redemption

Reimagine

Some time back we had a party at the club. This was a swimming pool party where we invited all the pool members and we had a DJ. Normally at parties which I attend – obviously my age group, I have often noticed that the crowd swings to the Amitabh songs and the Kishore kumar numbers – suitably remixed. The old is gold. They are the best numbers and they don’t make them like that anymore. That is my general feeling. So typically for a great time I get the DJ to play those classics to the modern beats.

When I was in college the pubs would exclusively play English music. Hindi music was too low market to be played. All out college socials and bazaar day would be full of English music. A few odd Hindi numbers would be played – like meheboba from sholay or something. If you are young and in college and you want to dance then it was English all the way. I think the first ever hindi song that created a rage and was played at clubs was the Bally sago remix of chura liya.  People loved it and it created ripples. I think that as far as my experience goes – that brought Hindi  songs back to the listen and dance hep music circuit.

It also started a trend of everyone and anyone taking an old song and remixing it and releasing it for an eager audience. It also prompted a lot of purists to say that a classic must not be tampered with. these are great songs, why would you want to mess with the original.
Fair point. I really dint care so much.

So back to the MG club swim party. The dancers at the party were all really the young turks aged from 8 to 15. These were the swim kids who had the chance to party their heart out. With their mothers watching these danced till the DJ finally called it a day. There is no better thing than peer pressure. Jispa refuses to dance. No matter how much I egged her, she sat in her chair refusing to move a muscle. She is the same at dandiya meets. She refuses to get up. So I let her be, only to find her dancing some time later at the insistence of her friends. Ya sure.  I reminded of the Aesop’s fable of the sun and the wind arguing on who is better at removing the coat of a traveler. The wind blew hard in an attempt to blow the coat away only to find the man pull the coat closer while the sun simply silently shined down on the man who promptly removed it.

At the party, the kids were very clear. They swayed only to Hindi music and only the latest hot hindi numbers. No amitabh, no Kishore, nothing. Hot fast tempo hindi number. Old songs with great melodies and beats don’t count for anything. What counts is – that its new young and popular. So the purists can take the songs and shove it up their……

On Sunday I was at another party. Here because of the age profile – a mix of old and new songs were being played when I suddenly figured that a lot of old numbers which were remixed and reinterpreted in the Bollywood were the rage. It made me think. It may be a classic but even if that is not constantly reinterpreted for a younger audience it is not going to be accepted. There is no point of a great old song if no one is going to dance to it. An artist’s primary goal in Bollywood is to reach out to as many as possible (to those elitists who sneer at this crass commercialization, I sneer back at them). They were made for a mass audience and that’s why they were hits and hits must be allowed to be reinterpreted again and again. A few flops will emerge. A flop will make the classic dearer and a hit will make the classic go further. In any ways it furthers the original. The fun bit with popular culture is that if it’s not got good, it won’t be popular so why bitch.

So as the DJ played back to back Bollywood reinterpreted songs, I stood back a bit and saw the crowd loving it. These were not simply remixed by Bollywood or the DJ. These were what I would call reinterpretations of the old ones. These are ones that I and Jispa (when she wants to) agree to dance on at the same time.

Like this one

This features Rishi Kapoor in what in his time was possibly a bit of irreverence. Bachana ae haseeno. It’s a classic hit and I am sure it was antiestablishment at the time – check the red heart that he wears on his silver costume.

And now you have his son practicing a brand of irreverence. The father would pine for one chic and his son will danced with three and gets away with it. This too is possibly antiestablishment. See – he doesn’t love any of the chics he is dancing with. He is flirting with them, all in control. He is the Casanova.

Here is another one – the original one was never meant for movies I think. It was a pop single that caught the imagination across borders. Nazia Hassan is the iconic pop singer who sang this one. Disco Deewane!

And cut to the present – this what my daughter loves and would dance to. The Disco Deewane from the ‘I hate it its so bad but the kids love it’ movie – Student of the year. Jispa – I will forever judge you for this one.

And the last one –

The original – Rishi Kapoor again in Om Shanti Om. I remember this as a kid. The huge set piece where the protagonist is dancing on a record player. It forever imprinted my mind with what a dance piece should be.

Cut to the present – Shah Rukh Khan dancing to a completely reimagined Om Shanti Om

All of these are not simple remixes and are reimagined and reinterpreted for the audience. All of them have English set pieces inside of the songs. Sit back and play all of them. Enjoy them all. The original and the new. Change is the only constant – be it, actively propagate it and allow it.

Hindu philosophy has one flaw – from the triumvirate Brahma creates, Vishnu protects and Shiva destroys. It necessarily means new has to rise from ashes – but there is no one who simply copies or is inspired or is happy to reinterpret and reimagine what is old and put it in a new context. Some god that simply copies. Someone akin to Bill Gates – who gave the world CCP – cut copy paste.

memories

I remember green carpet, my dad in his kurta pyjama, in our hall in Dubai and dad fiddling with his new beautiful Sony cassette player system. It is an amazing memory. Its morning and dad puts on this cassette of Mr Natwarlal and I am listening to Amitabh doing a fantastic job of singing mere Paas aao mere doston ek kissa sunoh. Wow those memories are something else. I must have been no greater than 6 or 7 years old. (the movie released when I was around 4). But I remember it andwhen ever the song runs I am immediately transported back. Here is the song

The song is forever etched in memory and frequent references to it come when someone askes or mentions about life and says something to the effect of ‘aap toh ache ji rahe ho’ and I retort “yeh jeena bhi koi jeena hai, lallu?”. Only those who are around as old as me would understand the reference to the dialogue. Yesterday I cracked that dialogue with my office gang to a very cold response and then like an old man I went onto youtube and explained the context of the dialogue to the very young team.

Some memories can never be explained to others. They are yours and yours alone. The significance of hugging someone older in a  kurta pyjama is something that is mine alone. Now I don’t need to put Jispa to sleep. She sleeps on her own but everyday after a bath and wearing my nightsuit (kurta pyjama) I go to Jispa’s bed and hug her tightly and kiss her good night. And she goes ‘yay yay… papa smell smell’. According to her there is a distinct Papa smell which she loves and takes in. in the morning also she will hug and say ‘papa smell papa smell’. I guess this is her memory that she will take with her wherever.

These memories are so emotional. Smells, touch, feel.. they all have their own connects. Most Mumbai residents will have a distinct memory of the smell of monsoon. Of course their associations could be good or nasty. It varies from experiences and people.

Like there is this other song from the same movie. I love this song as well. Obviously I would have heard it from the same cassette. It’s a nice song with folksy feel to it. I must have heard it at the same time as the earlier song but the emotion is somehow missing. (don’t miss those boots. I remember them distinctly. Ya this visual memory is stronger)

I guess what must have happened is that dad would have looked at me or called me or I must have laughed with him when the earlier song was played and this one was just played – without special intentions or eye contacts or something. So while I love both the songs, the mere paas aao, has a special ring to it. In fact watching the video leaves me cold. I love listening to the song. Amitabh’s baritone reverberating through the room. I love to listen to it but not watch it at all. There is nothing in the video and everything in the audio. Memories are a funny thing.

And while we are at it, here is one song that could have a similar effect on Jispa 30 years hence. Again we have Amitabh and his signature baritone. His voice has definitely aged but the distinct quality remains unchanged. Here is a song I love and I listen to it many times in the car, on speakers. Jispa has not even seen the movie and hence may not even know of the video but she would recognize the song and I tried explaining to her to the best of my ability the meaning of the song. And we have played it upteen number of times. So here listen on Jispa and tell me when you come back to it in the year 2043 if it rings a bell! What is it that you feel? What do you remember – iTen, car, papa, papa smell, drive, vacation… what is it triggering. A penny for your thoughts

I find this Ekla chalo re rendition inspiring and it does help me when in office I am going to (or feel like I am going to.. ) kick some ones butt.

oh baby sing a song

Brrr… Mumbai has gotten cooler in the mornings. And so has the swimming pool. I feel cold just looking at Jispa and the kids taking a dip in the pool at 5.45 am. My squash court is also closed for renovation, so today I decided to join her in the pool. Hmmm. It is cold. But its ok when you get swimming. after a long time I did around 12 laps and I could have possibly done more, but I came out. Its always interesting to see that every sport has a different muscle group requirement. No matter how much I might be playing squash, but after a round of intense swimming after a long time, and my different muscle groups made their presence felt. Sports – it makes feel alive.
I feel so good that Jispa is doing her share of sporting activities. But we never knew it would get this serious. Today the coach asked us if we were going anywhere for a vacation. Luckily we weren’t. He did not want Jispa to miss her routine as she was doing well. Then I asked about March and he said that state selections are in April. So that now leaves us for June. Wow. I can’t handle such a long break from a break. I will have to figure a way to stay at home and relax and make the best of my holidays. So now I am planning a June vacation. My immediate reaction was – it better be two weeks at the least. Lost for 14 days, preferably without the cell or internet or anything else!
You know… I am not the music types. I don’t really listen to music much but today I somehow was listening to an old Kishore kumar number and suddenly I smiled at the irony of it. I am right now listening to this number and talking about a vacation with my daughter with no cell or internet… and the song is… did you guess this one?

Ek aise gagan ke tale – jahan gum bhi na ho, aasun bhi na ho… bus pyaar pyaar pale….
Wow. Some sweet happy coincidences in life! It set the mood. What a lovely song! And lovely lyrics. Simple heart tugging stuff.
Listen to some more Kishore.

This was and still is a big hit. The number of times it has been resung remix and rescrewed is amazing. In fact I had to look a little more to get the original…. But at least I got to it. I feel so lucky to be able to find and share music and videos through the internet and of course youtube. In 1984 or 85 when we came in from Dubai, there was one cassette player in the house and that was monopolized by my teenage sister with fresh notions of romance in her head. Ok I am being slightly uncharitable but, she did monopolise it. It was a two-in-one which some of our young readers might know the meaning.Basically the player had not one but two cassette decks and a radio, which I have explained many times in the past was a REALLY big thing in the deprived pre liberalization era. It looked somewhat like this one here


So this one time the big musical hit Love Story was being aired on our national channel. Which was also a big thing as we had a movie aired only once a week on Sunday evenings. Socialist India treat for its citizens! So my sis decided to record all the songs using the two in one placed next to the TV. NOPES there were no wires connecting the two. It was an attempt to pirate using good old record button when the song played. The TV would blare and the player would record. I don’t remember very well but I don’t think it worked well as an experiment. But I do remember getting grief from my sister when I came in ringing the bell a few times. Opps. Teenage elder sisters are dangerous.
We should say grace for we have the internet!
While we are on songs – while I was searching for Neele Neele Amber pe, I chanced upon this south Indian piece from which it was inspired (I am not sure which one came first though). Listen on –

And of course the original from Love Story. Teenage elder sisters… sigh.