girte hain shaah-sawaar maidaan-e-jung mein,
wo tifl kya giregaa, jo ghuton ke bal chale.

here's the most terrific real-life affair-management story i've ever read. i managed to read till the end even tho it was soo long. must be sth abt it. hoho. formalising the business of extra-marital affairs is the last thing i had ever thot of reading. hoho. its superbly written. one cud bring out a dozen of movie scripts from this article. much like how few publications drive so many startups. hoho.

my bondhu on mention of the dance party few days back says - cool..tum saale..naach naach kar ghiste ho..ghiss ghiss kar naachte ho.. hoho.

this is crazy. damn crazy crazy.
how cud one be awake at 7 in morn on saturday? aur saala fir neend bhi nahi aaye.
it was ok during the week. i guessed it was some kind of hyperactivity.
but on a saturday?! unbelievable..abhorrable..hoho.

lekin meri ye jo neend hai,
wo udi kyu hai?
kehte hain log aksar aisa hota hai
ishq aur mohabbat mein.

haan, ho ho ho.
ab samajh aayi na baat
is band khopdi kothri ko.
sahaab, ye ishq ka junoon hai,
subah subah ho gaya noon hai.

fir mati thanki, aur dil besabr hua.
aakhir kaun hai wo?
hohoho kaun hai wo.
wo pari hai ya apsaraa,
wo jaanasheen ya fir koi dilrubaa.

gum tha isi soch mein,
ki achaanak door se ik aawaz aayi.
lagaatar, barkaraar.
pi pi, pi pi, pi pi.

main baukhalaaya, thora tharfadaaya.
wo bechain sur dil ko
kinchit nahi bhaaya.
hairaan usne ek operation search daudaaya.

ki tab achaanak, padosi ka kamraa saamne aaya.
muskuraaya dil, aakhir shrot kabze mein aaya.
shor-gul machaaya, bistar se uthaaya.
kambakht raaz sunkar bada krodh aaya.

week bhar ki aadat ne saahab ko majboor banaya,
har aadhe ghante pe alarm ko snooze kar,
saala saturday ko bhi meri neend udaaya.

hoho.
so again these are the nice times. lots of good music in the air.
lakeer - nachle, paighaam,..
tale of 3 cities, meenaxi - ye rishtaaaa (man this is so cool) kya kehlaata hai. i've to put this up someday too.
maqbool - jhin min jhini (the way it picks up)
laagi man ki lagan, baawra man dekhne.

reena bhardawaj is a suprising discovery. wonder why vishal didnt use her in maachis itself. hoho.

hoho. and i have to share this one. the lakeer song goes like -
shaan n kavita:
paighaam laaya saawan,
........
jee karta hai pankh lagaakar ud jaaoon,
..
RJ: seems like the only guys in the world who want to get bird flu here.
hohoho.

a complete deja vu song. possibly due to the rupak taal. possibly the raag, possibly the singer. dont know. completely taken in.
and a complete baawra one. very impressive.

movie: hazaron khwaishen aisi
music: shantanu moitra
singer: swanand kirkire

baawra man dekhne chala ik sapna
baawre se man ki dekho, baavri hai baatein
baawri si dhadhkanen hain, baavri hain saansen.
baawri si karvaton se, nindiya kyun bhaage
baawre se nain chaahe baawre jharokhon se
baawre se nazaaron ko taknaa

bawre se is jahaan mein, baawra sa ik saath ho
is sayaani bheed mein, bas haahton mein tera hath ho
baawri si dhun ho koi, baawra ik raag ho
baawre se pair, chaahen bhaawre khayaalon ke
baawre se bol pe hi rakhna

baawra sa ho andhera, baawri khaamoshiyaan,
thartharaati lauh madham, bawri madhoshiyan
bawra ik ghunghta chahe, hole hole bina bataaye
baawere se mukhde se hatna

baawra man dekhne chalaa ik sapnaa.

terribly captivating. another one from the same album - ae sajni. full blown rock bhojpuri number. hoho. they continue to surprise. my affinity seldom declines.

a dark fellow said:
he: yaar, main covertible khareedne se bahut darta hoon.
me: kyun?
he: aree, darta hoon aur kaala na ho jaaoon.

presenting the next chartbuster: quite an unusual place to come from.
movie: paapsinger: rahat fateh ali khan
music: shahi
lyrics: amjad islam amjad

a lovely catchy folksy melody, rendered in a superb baritone voice. the singer doode is marvellous. indeed a kawwal, this song makes him explore his ghazal, bhajan n of course kawwal techniques all at same time.btw, last time i heard lagan, was aisi laagi lagan meera ho gayi magan - anup jalota. hoho. this one has strong bhajan overtones too. its a simply awesome well-crafted mix of diff genres.

laagi tumse man ki lagan
lagan laagi tumse man ki lagan

(almost flows the ghulam ali way, so smooth, so harmonic)
gali gali ghoome
dil tujhe dhundhe
tere bin tarse nayan.

lagan laagi tumse man ki lagan.

(faintly like silk route here)
aa jaao meri jaan,
mere dil ka jahaan.
maange teri khabar
dhoondhe teraa nishaaan.

laagi tumse man ki lagan
lagan laagi tumse dil ki lagan

(the full blown qawwal here, bhakti ras me dooba hua)
teraaa tujhko saunp de,
kya laagat hai mor,
mera mujhme kuch naaaahi,
jo howat so tor.

tere bin meraa man,
jaise ban mein hirani
(i wonder i'll live thru this particular line's rendition more than a couple of times hoho)
jaise pagli pawan.
laagi tumse man ki lagan..

(and here come the harmonies, arousing melody)
pa dha sa re ga re re sa
pa dha sa re ga re re sa
maa$ ga re
pa dha sa re ga re re sa
paa$, ma ga re sa.

sa re ga ma
ma dha dha pa
sa ni dha, ni dha pa, dha pa ma, pa ma ga
gamagaregamapa

gali gali ghooome, dil tujhe dhoondhe. haay haay. awfully melodious. hoho.

also reminds of the recent toota toota ek parinda (or allah ke bande) by kailash kher from waisa bhi hota hai.. a bare melody rendered with no more than a guitar n a captivating voice.

india ke sharmnaak pradarshan ko dekh, humaare fellow-bondhu kuch is prakaar vilaap kar baithe:

yeh vb series, woh world cup, kya hai yeh sab, kuch
bhi toh nahin, aakhir sab maaya hai ...

tum kya leke aaye the, tum kya leke jaaoge ...

jeevan ke dukhon ka ek hi solution hai - iccha ko
tyaago balaak, iccha ko tyaago ...

peeda evident thi, par anaavashyak roop se hridaya-bhedi thi. isliye humne uttar diyaa:

eeshwarayee gyaan,
the aapke vichaaar mahaan.
vb series hi, ya kuch aur tha?
jo bramha ka akasmaat hua dhyaan.

hoho.

a superb exposition of the history of sexual/erotic movies. interesting to see how stds have risen, bandhans broken and reality relived on screen.

I rem a geeky joke the prof shared in one of those deep-down-dead classes. Developing the same proof technique around same time in history and having received similar awards for their breakthroughs was not happening for the first time in the history of mathematicians. wot was special in this case was that they shared the same woman. of course, the geniuses were simultaneous while the lady went thru them sequentially.

aaj morn soorya-devta ki kirnen dharti ko jalaane lagin.
band kamre ki ghutan se mishrit kaanton ki chubhan sataane lagi.
antarvedna ke klisht bandhanon ko kahin jodti, kahin todti.
unmukt nabh-vicharan ki pyaasi aag.
wo chitt ek se do hua, ya ek se aadha?
thora bhramit, thora saada.

fantastic one from RDB, Lata : Bemisaal: last nite they played it on radio.
aye ri pawan,
dhoodhe kise tera man,
chalte chalte.
baawri si tu fire,
kaun hai, tera sajan.

i fucking rem how many times i've stopped short after gungunaaing the first 2 lines. really bad if u dont know the lyrics of sucha beautiful song.
its kind of rdb meet salil chaudhary/madan mohan stuff.
isn't that hi pitched baawri si tu phiire between paras, breathtakingly amazing?
as usual, an ingenious percussion, replacing plain tabla with triple-tabla mix.
drills deep into ur rom-rom.

hoho. i can't help singing that baawri si over n over again. actually if u sing the graver n full-blown versions alternately, its even more fascinating. and finally the hooo... utaar. still not perfected. pretty obliged i am to those who made the world so wonderful.

a superb link to a '91 newsgroup post. I dont think I've ever come across a classication of ghazals acc to raags. yo this one!

things I humbly noted:

Chupke chupke raat din aanso bahana yaad hai- this all-well-known by Ghulam Ali is bhairavi. hoho, this one almost goes everywhere on notes.
Ranjish hi sahi, dil hi dukhaney ke liye aa- one of the few ghazals i've heard of Mehdi Hassan. This is Yaman doode. the primary basic raag. wow!
Ranj ki jab guftagoo honey lagi - Ghulam Ali in Bhoop Kalyan. nope, dont know this one.
Hangama hai kyon barpa"- Ghulam Ali - Darbari. typical halla in darbaar. hoho.
Kal chaudvin ki raat thee, shab bhar raha ... Ghulam Ali - Khamaj. sophisticated shringaar.
Yeh dil yeh paagal dil mera, kyon ... aawargee Ghulam Ali - Bhairavi is back! same halchal, aawaragi as chupke chupke
Mehfil mein baar baar kisi par nazar gayi - Ghulam Ali - Megh . I've heard only the Soldier version of this one. hoho.

we need a bigger annotated collection for ghazals. sb do it pls!!
Here's a huge list for movie songs.

tum chale jaaoge to sochenge,
humne kya khoyaa, humne kya paaya.

muddatein huin dil ko apnaaye hue,
sadiyon guzre use dikhaaye hue.
more than ik arsa hua, dukhaaye hue.

badi taiyaariyaan, dhol-manjire,
yaar aaya, saj-dhaj ke mera yaar aaya.
yaar, ya puraana rishtedaar aaya? hoho.

naari-svabhaav, anoothaa prem-bhaav.
hath andekhaa, aawargi apaar.
khoja tha aksar, sparsh ka komal vyavhaar.

bechain karti teri aas,
kuch khwaab, koi meethi pyaas.
madhosh khushbuon ne anaayaas hi,
baandhi koi alaukik paash.
suljhaata kaise unhe,
har pal rang badalta ehsaas.

khojta kaise main khudko,
khona chodti nahi tu khudko.
us dhuen ke tan se lipti,
deekhti kyun chhal ki parchhayin?

divya naynon mein chalakta prem,
jyada nahi, kam dena tha prem.
is udhedhbun mein bhool gayi tum,
kuch tha yaad dilaana mujhko.

aur ek choti si love story. thori adhoori, thori poori.
hath/krodh ki devi, cynicism/khamoshi ka devta.

snow-driving

here, may I present before you mezbaan n meherbaan,
the new sport of snow-driving.
a new game, full of adventure. alas, only to be played where there is nothing but snow.
when ur out to meet a friend, or simply shuttling from school to home.
when ur running to meet a deadline, or an occasional bout at the bar/restaurant.
all the time u can play the game of snow-driving.

Disregarding the heeds of fellow men, I decided to drive this winter, irrespective of whether dharti hile, ya aasmaan gire or there is 6-inches of snow. shuru, shuru mein thokte thokte..matlab thok hi diyaa. n then i saw the prospect, maybe inspired by one of the skating sessions I had.

let it skid, doode. let it skid. let the snow yield. let the wheels go astray.

If u have faith, and balance on the steer,
bless thee o bachcha.
the game is all urs.
u may go criss-cross,
hoho rem the way is all urs
(for no men of this world appear fond of this game in 6-inches snow).
u mite skid past the red-lights,
dont worry cos they'll forgive u,
for was it nething but the snow?
play the sound of snow along,
sometimes dense sometimes waste.
once a grrr in a haste,
once a khrr to ur taste.
and when the inside warmth is tantalisingly close,
do not pause to park at shore.
bring it in S, the gaily style,
crushing the snow with all ur mite.
and perchance, the rear meets one of its kin,
don't tremble, no fear
for all's fair in the game of snow-driving.
and either way, there is none to hear.

to meherbaanon, aapse bhi yehi aasha hai.
is abhootpoorva khel se adbhut aanand uthaayen.
man mein aahlaad failaayen, soul ki tripti paayen.

here, may I present before you mezbaan n meherbaan,
the new sport of snow-driving.
a new game, full of adventure. alas, only to be played where there is nothing but snow.
when ur out to meet a friend, or simply shuttling from school to home.
when ur running to meet a deadline, or an occasional bout at the bar/restaurant.
all the time u can play the game of snow-driving.

Disregarding the heeds of fellow men, I decided to drive this winter, irrespective of whether dharti hile, ya aasmaan gire or there is 6-inches of snow. shuru, shuru mein thokte thokte..matlab thok hi diyaa. n then i saw the prospect, maybe inspired by one of the skating sessions I had.

let it skid, doode. let it skid. let the snow yield. let the wheels go astray.

If u have faith, and balance on the steer,
bless thee o bachcha.
the game is all urs.
u may go criss-cross,
hoho rem the way is all urs
(for no men of this world appear fond of this game in 6-inches snow).
u mite skid past the red-lights,
dont worry cos they'll forgive u,
for was it nething but the snow?
play the sound of snow along,
sometimes dense sometimes waste.
once a grrr in a haste,
once a khrr to ur taste.
and when the inside warmth is tantalisingly close,
do not pause to park at shore.
bring it in S, the gaily style,
crushing the snow with all ur mite.
and perchance, the rear meets one of its kin,
don't tremble, no fear
for all's fair in the game of snow-driving.
and either way, there is none to hear.

to meherbaanon, aapse bhi yehi aasha hai.
is abhootpoorva khel se adbhut aanand uthaayen.
man mein aahlaad failaayen, soul ki tripti paayen.

A fantastic article on bloggers n blogging. exposing the inner psych.

talks mostly abt teenage turmoils altho quite universal in its concerns. walking the thin line between privacy n exposure. exposes plenty of thoughts which we adults wud not like to confess with a straight face. hoho.
sparkling snippets:

In such an unstable environment, it's no wonder that distinctions between healthy candor and ''too much information'' are in flux and that so many find themselves helplessly confessing, as if a generation were given a massive technological truth serum.

its refreshing to read stuff from those who haven't learnt the art of hiding it even from themselves.

--slow motion--
kal unse pehli mulaaqaat hui.
unhone pehle meri ungliyon ko pyaar se chuaa.
fir madhosh aankhon mein aankhen daal kar,
dekhaaa.
pyaaar se gaaalon ko,
chuaa.
fir dheere dheere, hole hole, baalon mein
haath daaala.
--slow motion end--
aur fir achaanak, haathon ko pochte hue,
restaurant se baahar chale gaye.

background voice:
jo aapko chaahte hon,
zaroori nahi ki wo aapke chipchipe baalon ko bhi chaahen.

ok ppl..i'm swept all over again. When I first heard it, I was extremely disappointed. No way was this music goin to win over my senses. and again, I am proved wrong. Lakeer has a couple of lovely compositions to boast of. paighaam is sweet - a south-indian classical ghazal, hoho, no wonder it sounds slightly strange, but indeed very soothing. mistakes from tehzeeb repeated. ARR is yet to learn ghazal-formation. Sadiyaan has a gungunaata flavor with sufi stuff freely thrown in. But, clearly the winner is nachle, na na nachle. wild, balle-balle dance number embellished with deep bass n percussion. a go-wild song really. ARR brings it out so well in Daler Mehndi. His mind-blowing voice oozes with folksy mithaas n a distinct classical touch. i guess he even leaves sukhwindara singh behind when he renders those high-pitches harmonies. royally maddening. engulfing. captivating. Royally! God, its just crazy how ARR arranges this one, unifying the essence of the song with Daler's magical vocal touch. and i've still got to figure out the lyrics. khaas lafz chune hue, u've to see how all that alliteration n onomatopoeism blends with musical transitions.
and esp the thing daler mehndi does once or twice at high pitch in the song. sodiye ee eee ee . a jittery giggle like taan at a pitch beyond reach. mind-blowingly captivating. i've to practice that. he did that in the kajraare kajraare nainawalen too from chupke.

picking it up from an inner verse:


ye hai kamaal-e-ulfat
naazaan hai dil se kudrat
zanjeer na deewaren
na raoke koi taakat

milan ki dhun jo lage
to fir duniya na dikhe
jale ho shole raahon mein,
lage hon kaante paaon mein,

sochna kya,
fir se chalen,
wahaan jahaan le chala humdum.
(wot a superb reprise here!)

o nachlen, na na nachlen,
o chal taal taal nachlen,
sondiyen, o heere-motiyen,
chal haath thaam chag len.

darna kya,
hum tere,
hain rabbaaaaaaa sang tereeee.

i relish loud wild wailings. hoho. of course, with some sur pls.

a Hot story of a surrogate mother. Anybody reminded of Filhaal? Even chori chori chupke chupke. Filhaal was terrific. a genuine characterization of the turmoil. so-sensitive n full of pathos. real life is not that apart from wot shows on the reel. yo bollywood!!

i just remembered, one of the days last week, i managed to catch an hour of the angrezi version of mr. n mrs. iyer. ( lost in translation. ppl, dont kill me for it) quite moving as usual. hollywood romance is far more individualistic than bollywood. as the desi young ppl seek more n more of their individual indentities, bollywood wud turn individualistic. characters with own personalities (n of course more genuine), seemingly different, varied ppl under one umbrella. again, DCH comes to mind. mr. n mrs. iyer definitely was. btw, the rahul bose doode is terrific. he's churning out classic inde-bollywood movies, one after another. seems like he had a stroke of enlightment one night n then he's been on to it. hoho. a marvellous actor. and always picking up characters centered arnd the common man. as the indian society veers towards individualism, he might just become the godfather of such roles. hoho. cheers to him!

kabhi kisi ko mukammal jahaan nahi milta,
kahin zameen ko aasmaan nahi milta.

jise bhi dekhiye, wo apne aap mein gum hai.
zubaan mili hain, magar hum-zubaan nahi milta.

bujha sakaa hai bhala kaun waqt ke shole,
ye aisii aag hai jis mein dhuwaan nahin miltaa.

tere jahaan mein aisa nahi ke pyaar na ho,
jahaan ummeed ho us ki, wahaan nahi milta.


I thought this one was by gaalib. hoho. its actually by nida fazli.
simple precise caricature of facts.
movie: aahista aahista
sung by: both asha bhosle, bhupinder.

achanak yaad aayi puraane logon ki. jinke hum deewaane the. abhi bhi hain. lekin wo gum ho gaye. somehow i rem of benjamin gilani. pretty surprised to find him in a cameo in main madhuri dixit banna chahti hoon. (shudnt renuka shahane have done that role? hoho). a related google search revealed that its actually the ram gopal varma doode again. he managed to cast gilani in Kaun too. i rem him as a wonderful actor from Udaan days. oo it wasnt gilani prolly, it was vikram gokhale, hoho. and there were days when he was everywhere. wonder where the Udaan girl went. She was a terrific actress, beauty. anyway, i found gilani too classy. Going ahead, there was the comedy genre. Om puri was classic in kakkaji kahin, pankaj kapoor in Phatichar, n few others.

indeed classy actors: Benjamin Gilani, Tom Alter, Mita Vashisht, Shriram Lagoo, Malavika Tiwari, Neelima Azim ( she used to be my fav, u rem Zameen? Mahesh Bhatt directed this silly serial on DD.), kulbushan kharbanda, lalit tiwari, arun bali, ravi baswani, rakesh bedi, anant mahadevan . I've mentioned pankaj kapoor, farida jalaal, naseer shah, om puri earlier too. I wish the bollywood scene was swept by these actors. yes, u'd need intelligent scripts to bring them together, but i guess they'd give hollywood a run for their money if that was possible.
used to dote on them. Swabhimaan, Itihaas,(pratima kazmi shot into fame here) and there was a serial that replaced the bakwaas Shanti - some politician doode, terrific actors including lalit tiwari. damn! i wish i cud get ahold on them again. and damn again, it was scrapped in middle.

the only historical saga i liked was chanakya - awesome chandraprakash dwivedi doode..a complete prati-roop of the historical character that he portrayed. so meticulous, perfect in every sense.

here's a nice article abt comedy on indian television. why cant they make a desi-Seinfield? i managed to catch Hum Log on its repeat-show. The ones I still feel bad abt missing: Mulzim Haazir, Yeh Jo hai zindagi, Nukkad. Hope I'll find the archives somewhere. I hate to sound like a budhau, lekin they Were the real gems.

I just finished watching ishq hai tumse. a terrible remake of hum aapke hain kaun. watch it for the incredulous twist at the end. hoho. bollywood has definitely moved ahead with the zamaana. hoho. ppl who think bipasha basu has lots of oomph n is sexy are definitely justified. deep, nice voice too. wud suit a mc job more hoho( at least a couple of scenes). her eyes are indeed beautiful. bas, thats it. those eyes were not made for that face. an evolutionary mistake, i guess. its all just wrong. cant say more, and esp when she underplays herself. and i tell u, eyes of both the bhabhis are wrongly superimposed too. i think its the director. lovely songs tho. must watch for the songs n the incredddible twist at the end.

I sometimes write replies to mail n stuff, which only I end up adoring. hoho. Here's one of them: ( I guess the context is quite apparent).

to kuch baat aisi hai,
kuch kambakht logon ki naajayaz harkaton ke vaaste, hum ravivaar afty bhookhe nahi reh sakte.
isliye ek kraanti ki leher hum uthaayenge, indian garden ki or.
about 1 hr mein wahaan, main, k and r prakat honge.
jo sazzan humaare maafik pet ki jwaala se peedit hon, kripaya wahaan nazar aayen.

aapka shubhchintak,
ekshaks