A lazy summer afternoon...

More here...

A day to remember

It is one of my most favorite events ever. It happened today. Exactly forty years ago.

Man landed on the moon.

Celebrate!

"Light & Lines"

One, the raw material, and the other, the most fundamental building block in 2-D visual design.

तोच चंद्रमा नभात

There are certain chores I don't mind doing over and over again I guess. One of them is "preparing" to convert a seemingly infinite collection of audio tapes I have collected over the years to mp3 format so I can carry them on my iPods. So, over the last few days I went through a whole box (out of several such) full of tapes that I hadn't played in a while since I don't have cassette player anymore! There were really, really old Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, Marathi songs, both from movies and bhaavageethe, and of course Carnatic & Hindustani music. And I picked a few Marathi cassettes, as usual, as my first set to be converted. They are way up on my priority list because they are harder to replace. I want to convert them first before they quit on me. Why don't you just buy the CD versions, you ask? Because I don't want to spend a fortune! Just look at my collection and you will know! So, I organized them, as always, in the order of priority, keeping away the ones that I also have on CDs, and..... put them all back in the box. Why? I told you, I don't have a player to play them on! How can I convert them without a player?

Anyways, here are some of the songs I "looked at" and then played on the net. Again. And again. And again. Haven't stopped yet.

1. One of my all time favorites, "Ghanashyam Sundara" from Amar Bhupali, sung by Panditrao Nagarkar (and also Lata Mangeshkar -- this song repeats a few times in the movie). If you love music in V. Shantaram's movies, here is why: The music was composed by Vasant Desai, who also composed the following song:




And lyrics:

घनःश्याम सुंदरा श्रीधरा अरुणोदय झाला
उठिं लवकरि वनमाळी उदयाचळी मित्र आला

आनंदकंदा प्रभात झाली उठी सरली राती
काढी धार क्षीरपात्र घेउनी धेनु हंबरती
लक्षताती वासुरें हरि धेनु स्तनपानाला

सायंकाळीं एके मेळीं द्विजगण अवघे वृक्षीं
अरुणोदय होताचिं उडाले चरावया पक्षी
प्र्भातकाळी उठुनि कावडी तीर्थ पंथ लक्षी
करुनी सडासंमार्जन गोपी कुंभ घेऊनी कुक्षीं
यमुनाजळासि जाति मुकुंदा दध्योदन भक्षी

कोटी रवीहून तेज आगळें तुझिया वदनाला
होनाजी हा नित्य ध्यातसे हृदयी नाम माला


2. "तोच चंद्रमा नभात" by Sudhir Phadke, arguably one of the best Bhaavgeethe singers of India:



And lyrics:

तोच चंद्रमा नभात तीच चैत्रयामिनी
एकांती मजसमीप तीच तूहि कामिनी !

नीरवता ती तशीच धुंद तेच चांदणे
छायांनी रेखियले चित्र तेच देखणे
जाईचा कुंज तोच तीच गंधमोहिनी

सारे जरि ते तसेच धुंदि आज ती कुठे ?
मीहि तोच तीच तूहि प्रीति आज ती कुठे ?
ती न आर्तता उरात स्वप्न ते न लोचनी

त्या पहिल्या प्रीतीच्या आज लोपल्या खुणा
वाळल्या फुलांत व्यर्थ गंध शोधतो पुन्हा
गीत ये न ते जुळून भंगल्या सुरांतुनी


3. "प्रिया आज माझी नसे साथ द्याया" by Sudhir Phadke:

Play from this link

And lyrics, of course:

प्रिया आज माझी नसे साथ द्याया
नको धुंद वारे, नको चांदण्या या

नको पारिजाता धरा भुषवू ही
पदांची तिच्या आज चाहूल नाही
प्रियेविण आरास जाईल वाया

फुले सान झेलू, तरी भार होतो
पुढे वाट साधी, तरी तोल जातो
कुणाला कळाव्या मनाच्या व्यथा या

न शांती जिवाला, न प्राणास धीर
कसा आज कंठात येईल सूर
उरी वेदना मात्र जागेल गाया

अता आठविता तशा चांदराती
उरे मौक्तिकावीण शिंपाच हाती
उशाला उभी ती जुनी स्वप्नमाया


I can go on and on....But I must stop here. For now. Will add more later.

ಸುಮ್ನೆ ಹೀಗೇ ಚಪಲಕ್ಕೆ....

ಬಾಯಿ ಚಪಲ ಅಲ್ಲ, ಫೋಟೋ ತೆಗೆಯೋ ಚಪಲ ಅಷ್ಟೆ! :P

When insensitive morons get to run businesses....

This is what happens.

As if this, this, and this, just to name three, weren't enough.

It reminds me of the horror I felt when on a lazy post-lunch stroll in New Orleans a few years ago I happened to see a "hookah cafe" flaunting the following painting out on the street trying to entice people to come in for a smoke or two. The French owner apparently believed he knew how to put Ganesha's multiple hands to good use.

Morons. Really.

Happy 4th of July!

Celebrate Freedom. Celebrate Liberty. Celebrate Democracy.