Here is a song after a month-long hiatus. I sang this with Srividya Kasturi. This song, En Mel Vizhundha, is a lesser known song from the Tamil movie May Maadham but it is so beautiful with the voices of Chitra and Jayachandran.
Song: En Mel Vizhundha
Movie: May Maadham
Music: A R Rahman
Original singers: K S Chitra & P Jayachandran
Cover by: Srividya Kasturi & Joseph Thomas
Wouldn’t you love, respect and worship a kind of woman like Veronica Guerin? If you haven’t seen the movie based on her life (which has the lovely Cate Blanchet as Ms. Guiren), you should. I’ve been watching it today for the nth time. Now check out this beautiful song which I heard first in this movie. This song, is called The Fields of Athenry, is an Irish folk ballad set during the Great Irish Famine (1845-1850) about a fictional man from near Athenry in County Galway who has been sentenced to transportation to Botany Bay, Australia, for stealing food for his starving family. The song is sung in the movie Veronica Guerin, by Brian O’Donnell, then aged 11, a street singer in Dublin.
(Image credit: www.independent.ie)
Here is a new music blogger who needs your feedback on her songs. Visit Nandita‘s music blog and let her know your comments.
Freedom Walk is an effort to mobilize social activism to claim, ensure and preserve freedom in our society. A team of campaigners is walking from Kasargode to Trivandrum. I am always skeptical of the “walking” campaign concept, but the excerpts from their website about the walk makes me feel that this sounds good.
Excerpts from their website:
During the journey we will also be actively promoting the free software movement in each district in Kerala. We are looking forward to cooperating with different Free Software User Groups throughout the state and replicate our successful efforts in the building of the GNU/Linux Users Group, Trivandrum.
The second objective that we are trying to achieve is to promote social activism. We expect to meet and collaborate with interested individuals and organizations at various points during the march to express our solidarity and extend our offer to work together in areas where they can utilize our core competency – Information Technology – to enhance their effectiveness and competency. We will also try to push this message through seminars hoping that we will be able to inspire the next generation to grow into responsible citizens.
We also would like to reach out to individuals and organizations who share our vision in preserving the environment. We will be offering to extend our help and technical competency to organized groups like nature clubs, social forestry clubs etc., to help them grow and make use of the power of technology in effectively growing and spreading the message of conservation. These groups can also utilize our efforts to actively network among similar groups across the state.
As part of this effort we will be offering free technical consultancy, web hosting and related services for all these groups. If you are a member of any of these above mentioned groups and you are interested in availing this opportunity please get in touch with us by phone at 9446069446 or using the contact form.
I just came to read a blog post that discusses the linguistic chauvinism and about the need of preserving a certain language. The language in question was Malayalam. The author of the post obviously got angry by the comment of a Government school teacher that a criminal case should be booked against the parents who send their kids to English medium schools. And I felt that both the comments from professor and the blogger have too much emotional elements in it.
The comment from the professor is of course stupid and irresponsible. Capital punishment to parents for sending their kids to the school of their choice is more of a laughable view point. However, in the process of placing counter arguments I feel that the blogger too has got emotional. There were a couple of questions raised in the post:
1) I speak malayalam, and read/write it with some difficulty, yet I do not see the point in learning poetry and prose! I mean, what is the whole idea?
A language is not just a mere tool for communication. There is a huge wealth of knowledge base that comes with it which is perfected across several years by several generations and passed on from generation to generation. This wealth of knowledge is recorded in various forms – Literature (and by literature, I am not referring to fiction only), proverbs, folk songs etc. Most of these forms contribute to a historical record of the then social system, society, eco system, weather and life in general. These have time and over shaped up the culture and our social and individual identity.
Now a possible question: Can the same not be translated to a globally accepted language, like English, so that it will be available to all those who are interested and they will not have to face the difficult of learning a particular language?
As well know, the language loses it’s beauty and more importantly the context, when it is translated. To understand something that is written in a language with it’s original beauty and context, you need to read it in the language in which it is written. The translations can have several interpretations and can be politically abused.
2) Languages evolve, but do they get killed?
Speaking of the death of a language, here is a quote from Wikipedia:
The most common process leading to language death is one in which a community of speakers of one language becomes bilingual in another language, and gradually shifts allegiance to the second language until they cease to use their original (or heritage) language. This is a process of assimilation which may be voluntary or may be forced upon a population. Speakers of some languages, particularly regional or minority languages, may decide to abandon them based on economic or utilitarian grounds, in favour of languages regarded as having greater utility or prestige.
Ironically, the languages which even evolve in itself can get killed by the same people who use it. The next question would be whether we need to preserve a language which is not in need by the same people who use it. But there comes the importance of preserving the knowledge treasure that the language has generated. And whether a person should acquire this knowledge or not is a personal choice, but there is no doubt that we don’t have any right to deny that treasure to the future generations to come, hence the need of preseverance.
English medium education and Malayalam
Learning English is essential these days to compete in the globalized world. I do not question that (and the sad state of affiars in Kerala state proves that even the English medium schools are not helping our children on using that language properly). But the news that the children being punished or fined for speaking Malayalam in the school premises do not leave a good impression on the kind of English education system that we have. This leaves an impression in the children that speaking Malayalam is a henious thing to do and they would begin to see their own language as third-class (which will then lead to view one’s own culture and tradition as third-class).
Linguistic chauvinism
Too much of love for anything that we hold dear to our hearts could make us extremists. So we need to take good care of the whole language-love not leading to regional or linguistic chauvinism. There is nothing wrong in taking pride of one’s own language or culture but when it turns to establish that only ours is supreme, it will cause trouble. That is what we see from the recent examples of social troubles caused by Maharashtra Navnirman Sena during anti-North Indian campaign or Kannada Rakshana Vedige during Raj Kumar’s capture and death.
[Image source: Wikipedia]
Breathing Under Water
[Anoushka Shankar, Karsh Kale]
(Listen to audio samples or buy from Amazon)
For those who like albums which belong to the world music/fusion music category, Breathing Under Water is a delightful musical experience. This album is produced by Anoushka Shankar and Karsh Kale and have 13 songs in total. The music is a blend of Indian music with modern sounds. Karsh Kale does the guitars, keyboards and live drums while Anoushka Shankar manages the Sitar and keyboards. On the vocals, you have the ever-amazing Sting, the versatile genius Shankar Mahadevan, Sunidhi Chauhan and Anoushka’s half sister and the Grammy winner, Norah Jones.
Instrumental collaborators include Pt. Viswa Mohan Bhatt (Mohana Veena), Salim Merchant (arranger, pianist) and the legendary Ravi Shankar (Anoushka’s father) himself on Sitar.
Confluence II
[Rahul Sharma, Richard Clayderman]
(Listen to the songs)
This is the second album in the Confluence series by Richard Clayderman and Rahul Sharma. Clayderman is on Piano while Rahul plays Santoor. I am not sure if it is because of the lighter orchestra arrangement, but Santoor and Piano do not mix well together in this album. Both instruments stand out on their own without blending well together. Apart from that, it is a nice album for easy listening and to lighten your mood.
Miles From India
[Various artists]
(Listen to audio samples or buy from Amazon)
Producer Bob Belden teams up with Louis Banks and a number of other renowned classical and Jazz musicians from India and abroad to bring this beautiful album, Miles From India. The team has reproduced popular themes from Jazz music legend Miles Davis‘ recordings and put together a blend of Jazz music with Indian music. The artists include people who have worked with Miles Davis also.
Indian musicians include, Badal Roy (Tabla), Louiz Banks, Gino Banks (Drums), Rudresh Mahanthappa (Saxophone), Ravi Chari (Sitar), Vikku Vinayakram (Ghatam), V. Selvaganesh (Khanjira), U. Shrinivas (Mandolin), Brij Narain (Sarod), Dilshad Khan (Sarangi), Sridhar Parthasarathy (Mridangam), Taufiq Qureshi & Sivamani (Percussion), Kala Ramnath (Carnatic Violin), Rakesh Chaurasia (Flute) and Shankar Mahadevan & Sikkil Gurucharan on Indian classical vocals.
Culture Unplugged is a new media studio focused on enabling networks of socially/spiritually conscious content and its creators. According to them, they are dedicated to bring authentic voices of diverse cultures to global audiences. Voices that needs to be felt & understood, stories & films that connects people from different parts of the world.
Read more:
We are launching an online venue with weekly blog catering to our primary audience – film-makers, film-lovers, conscious creatives/citizens. This venue is to be launched in October/November 2008. Through this effort, we are not just building a platform/structure that simply publishes content, but one that raises consciousness of film-makers as citizens and unites people through their spirit.
Our wish is to adopt a voice that is: Mature, Noble, Pragmatic, Frank, Fearless, Fresh; truth-seeking, expansive & inclusive, sharp-focused, thoughtful & sensitive – holding compassionate viewpoint of humanity and disparate cultures.
We are looking for writers who wish to blog and engage with global audience in a dialogue through this online platform. These opportunities are for freelance contributions which can commence now. Compensation is based on expertise/experience and efforts required.
We believe your voice can provide invaluable inspiration & vigor to our audience. We have debuted recently with the launch of Asia and MiddleEast’s first online film festival of seen and unseen cinema.
Our festival partners are Barrie Osborne (Producer, New Zealand, 7 times – Oscar winner), Michael Pyser (Producer, USA, Several Oscar Nomination) and Shekhar Kapoor (Film-maker/Director, India, Oscar Nominated 2007). Now we are launching an online platform to facilitate cross-pollination of ideas, spirit and knowledge among storytellers, content producers, professionals from social/scientific arena and global audiences.
Also check out their online film festival section. The movies are fast loading and there are so many independent movies. A feast for people who enjoy independent movies.
In these times of communal hatred that fills up our minds, here is a story from Times Of India. A group of Muslims has been playing Ramlila in Lucknow, right from 1972 and it is still going on. Here Rama, Ravana and Lakshman are all played by Muslims.
Masood Ahmad took over as manager of the BKT Ramlila Samiti from his father Muzaffar Hussain, who floated the outfit and also the concept of a mixed cast along with a Hindu friend in 1972. The move generated much curiosity and even a whisper campaign initially. But things have gradually settled down.
The casting coup of the year, says Ahmad, is the new Lord Rama — gawky 15-year-old Mohammad Sher Khan from BKT Higher Secondary School.
Khan, who’d been playing Bharat and Shatrughan for three years, is exultant about his elevation to lead status. ‘‘I have read Ramcharitmanas several times and particularly liked the ‘kirdar’ of Rama,” he declaims grandly.
And the 75 year old Maqbool Ahmed asks us a valid question – Why always the poor, not the rich?
One more story from Orissa, where a Muslim family has been organizing Durga Pooja every year.
Happy Dussehra, everyone.
I remember an email that was circulated sometimes back with a picture of some beautiful Pakistani girls. It said, “this is what we missed because of partition“. 🙂 Not denying that ( 😉 ), but whenever I listen to some Pakistani music bands and artists, it makes me feel that it is them that the biggest loss of partition.
Recently, I came to know about Coke Studio (through my friend Thulasi), which brings a series of live studio recording sessions. Something similar to MTv Unplugged that rocked the music world. The participating artists include some of the popular names known to Indian music lovers as well – Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Ali Azmat, Strings etc. I have heard a couple of recordings and it sounds great.
Check out their episode #4 and realize what we really missed because of partition. 🙂
The Sangh Parivar and it’s supporters time and again have been saying that their violence is in response to centuries long oppression that Hindus had to face from it’s foreign invaders. They say Hindus had to suffer because of the tolerant nature of Hindus. They further explain that the Mughal raj, British raj, Missionaries and conversion are all results of this centuries long tolerance and universal acceptance of Hinduism. This has gained quite some sympathy from both national and international audience and is often used to justify the brutally violent acts of Sangh Parivar. But this story of tolerance is nothing but a myth.
Love, hate, tolerance and intolerace are all human traits. Religion could either enhance it or destroy it. The choice is left to the human beings. Jesus Christ taught the message of love and forgiveness to his disciples. He asked them to spread these words whereas some of his disciples simply went after spreading the religion and setting up it’s institution in the name of spreading his words. The abuse of Christianity had resulted in wars and religious persecution. Jesus Christ was gone and a religious institution replaced him. This abuse continues to happen as we hear US president George Bush say “God would tell me, George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan. And I did, and then God would tell me, George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq… And I did“.
Similarly, Hinduism is a beautiful philosophy. Many of the Hindu holy texts contain some beautiful thoughts and ideas. But by practice, Hinduism was not that universally accepting. The most celebrated “universal acceptance” of Hinduism is primarily based on our racist mentality that exists even now. I remember a couple of incidents – of how a northie wrote that “Madrasi chicks look ugly” which got the entire blogosphere in to a north-south divide discussion and then the most recent one from the first ever BlogCamp Kerala in 2008. One (and only) foreigner who attended the BlogCamp Kerala wrote this in his blog after the blog camp:
People were taking picture of me like I was a tourist attraction. 100 guys, 3 girls and one Guillaume, and everyone is interested in the Guillaume.
Yes, that happened in a so-called intellectual part of the society. Similarly, you go to an event, you see an african-american man and you don’t even feel like sitting beside him. But if he was white, you would definitely use any chance that you could talk to him and be a friend.
The above mentioned is one simple example of the racist mindset that we have. We love the color “White” or anything “foreign“. Hence we had warmly welcomed the Whites and other foreigners. This is one thing that resulted in the British Raj. The rulers of that time while they were treating their downtrodden within their social system (Dalits and poor people) like pigs, welcomed their White friends who later became their masters. Their own racist mindset resulted in all these. British Raj, Missionaries and such. And people call that racist mindset tolerance and universal acceptance. And that racist mentality is exactly what the problem behind conversion. Because it resulted in helping the foreigners, deep-rooting caste-system and poverty in it’s own society which later lead to missionaries and conversion.
If love, tolerance and acceptance were religious inventions, there wouldn’t have been atheists who are as humanitarians as some religious figures. The only difference is that such atheists (and I am not referring to some of those urban atheists who say “I am an atheist” for fashion) do not put any religion’s label in their work. So whenever you hear the Sangh’s doctrine about tolerance and universal acceptance, think again.
