mann bole mann bole, mann se jeena..

Tum logon ki, iss duniya mein
Har kadam pe, insaan ghalat
Main sahi samajh ke jo bhi karoon
Tum kehte ho ghalat !
Main ghalat hoon toh phir kaun sahi (phir kaun sahi)
Marzi se jeene ki bhi main
Kya tum sabko arzi doon
Matlab ki tum sab ka mujh pe
Mujh se bhi zyada haq hai


I am plain crazy about the songs in this movie (Rockstar). It is rebellious and angry or rather angst-ridden.  I read somewhere that females have generally disliked this movie, and men have appreciated this movie. I lovvved it. Maybe I have a guy's soul in the wrong getup?! :-D But listen to other songs in this movie, the music is great and lyrics high calibre -especially hawa hawa , nadaan parindey, phir se udhh chala. Rahman stands out miles ahead in the current breed of music directors. 


I started reading Rushdie's Satanic verses. I love his writing, his language is versatile, vocabulary rich and his imagination wild. On a side note, my vocab is going downhill, I 'love' almost everything instead of using the apt word for the occasion. About the book, I am also curious about what started the controversy. In my personal opinion, there shouldn't be this much hulla bulla if anybody says something about the 'sacred'. Freedom of thoughts, freedom of speech and all that. I think prophet or any of the scriptures have enough stature to stand their ground against anything on their own. Ill also add that if a society has no qualms about comments against one community but resents against their own, it doesn't speak volumes about their openness either. Anybody should be free to say what they think, and everybody should have the tolerance to hear it and make their own judgement. Collective behavior these days has greater tendency of being harmful than constructive. 


Anyway, coming back to Rushdie and Rahman, imagine how it must feel to excel in some arena and to be miles ahead of their peers. Maybe they don't give it much thought. But I am guessing it must be way better than being mediocre. Personally, I have been on the mediocre scale. I have this urge today to get out of this rut. I hope this urge sustains for sometime and not fizzle out in seconds like it does usually ;)
 Away I go to create history. Adios amigos :)

Returning to blogspace :)

Two years is a long time, yet it passes unnoticed. Didn't we welcome 2011 just a few days back, and lo it is ending now. After debating many times if I should return to this space, and if I have anything new to write and whether what I write will interest anybody, I decided to return. Not because the criteria was met,  but because sometimes I used to write for myself. In those PhD days, this space was a break in the monotony of research.

In a nutshell, I am no longer in India though I miss it every bit, married (finally found a tall dark handsome educated liberated guy - stroke of luck, destiny, or simple record-keeping? ), and still keeping my career alive though with less enthusiasm and more distractions. How is life in pardes? Sometimes lonely, sometimes liberating and many times hassle-free. Here, face-to-face interactions are limited to a few people, countable on fingers. Work keeps you busy most of the waking hours. Like somebody wise said, you will end up alone here unless you make an effort to make friends. That however takes considerable energy, and one doesn't click with just about anybody.
Otherwise, life is lived online - something I have been trying to avoid with less success. I am consciously making an effort to not open the laptop after work hours, investing time instead in attempting new dishes in the kitchen, decorating the nest, reading a book, or just calling up a friend. I am as interested as ever in music and movies and books. So lets open up discussions on these once again. I welcome the few readers I have to give me suggestions on books, movies, food, music and just about anything.

Latest book read: Girl with the dragon tattoo, a thriller by Stieg Larrson. It was a gripping page-turner, I finished the 600 page book in two days. Otherwise I have been reading more Terry Pratchetts. I am still not fed up of this series, and someone told me I am yet to read the best of his books, so will be onto it in future days. I have developed a liking for Salman Rushdie's works. Recently, I found a box-full of books at home, and many of his books in it. Thankfully, my husband occasionally reads the interesting books as well. So I am looking forward to exploring the library at home. Notable movies in recent past: Children of heaven, Rockstar, Chillar party.

In music, I am trying unventured territories. I used to like instrumental hindustani and stay away from vocal. But I'm exploring those too these days. Love pakistani folk music- that country has many things going wrong for it, hope music doesn't fade away with it. Have you tried the pakistani coke studio? It is a brilliant fusion of modern music and folk music. India has an imitation where singers re-sing the Bollywood songs in a different way. That in short sums up why we don't hear alternative music in India much. Bollywood occupies all ear-space.  Any recommendations in other genres?