Bizarre

It so happened that a colleague of mine came back after a long vacation and she looked  (lets just say) different. She originally had non-existent eyebrows and today, there was this nice design on her forehead. Turns out that she had eyebrows tattooed onto her forehead. “Nice plan’, I said, smiling at her. I wish it had stopped at that.

When I complimented her on her nice eye-make-up, she coolly told me, “No, it’s actually a tattoo too and it’s permanent. Now I don’t have to wear eye makeup everyday and still look pretty.” She had actually gotten even her eyeliner tattooed on her eyelids. That had my eyes popping out of their sockets.  Though she did admit that the process was extremely painful, I’m not sure she mentioned it was worth it. She told me it was so painful that later that night she had to be taken to the hospital for pain medication.

I know I have a tattoo too. So, I can’t really be the one to be commenting on my friend’s tattoo, so what if it is in a “sensitive” place. I guess it is a personal choice to decide what is “ok” for you and what is “extreme”.

I know it was her choice and her suffering but I was really shocked. What if the person doing it missed or had a shaky moment? The lesser risk would be that you would have bad eye make-up for the rest of your life and worst case your eyes could get damaged. I am really glad that it didn’t happen to my friend but I couldn’t help but wonder, where is the line? Just how far are you willing to go to look good?

E-Manna-ting Radiance

So, we were arguing on whether to go to the concert or not, because the tickets were priced quite high. “But, it’s Manna Dey!!, It’s definitely going to be worth it”  I told R. After much debate about the costs of the concert, we finally decided to go and booked tickets a week before the show. “ Manna Dey-In the flesh”, the concert was called. Though I have been a fan of his singing for a long time, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this concert. I was crossing my fingers, hoping to hear him sing for at least half the time of the concert without too many ‘fillers’ as is the trend today.

All excited, we were at our seats by 7:15, though the show was supposed to start only by 7:30. Though the curtains were drawn, we could hear notes of instruments being tuned and a voice I guessed was Manna’s. It was a pleasant surprise at 7:30 that even though half the seats were still empty, from behind the curtains, Manna Dey’s voice said, “ I promised I’ll be here at 7:30, I am here. Are you there??”

And there he was, the legend himself, sitting at an old harmonium and all set to start. No one to give long speeches (read irritate),no nonsense MC, no gimmick, he was all set to start the show. But as the organizers would have it, they wanted to do a short interview with him before he started singing. Though he expressed displeasure at not being allowed to start with the music, he agreed to answer a few questions. After the Q&A session, he started the music with “Ae malik tere bande hum” along with another lady with a decent voice by his side. She accompanied him for the duets. 

And then started the saga of the 3-hour musical fest that was. With each song, he remembered the music director, the composer and the lyricist, which I thought was a herculean effort. And he mentioned a few anecdotes with each one of the songs. It was like adding a personal touch to each one of his songs.

The musicians who came with him were all one of a kind. You could see that they had been with him for a long time, as they knew exactly what he expected of them. One person played the tabla, another the dhol, one on the piano and one on the bass guitar. But the most interesting of them all was this old man who had like a magic box of odd things, with which he added beats at different times in different songs. He had this set of ghungroo (musical anklets) and then so many other things that I can’t really name. He made these beats that were so much a part of the old hindi film songs that made each song so unique. And the best part was this 85 year old MC who had a very  “shayarana mizaj” and kept reciting sher after sher and made fun of all the things that he could set his eyes on and mostly himself, and left the audience in squeals of laughter. Listening to the music however was once-in-a-lifetime experience for me atleast.  Few of the songs he sung were, ‘Kaun aaya mere man ke dwaare’,  ‘Tu chupi hai kahan, main tadapta yahan’, ‘Yeh raat bheegi bheegi’, ‘Laga chunri me daag’, ‘Ae meri zohre jabeen’ and 'dil ki girah kholdo', among many others. And every one of them, he made sure he sang the complete song.

When asked what he thought were his favorites, he mentioned “Kasme Wade pyar wafa” and “Ae mere pyare watan”, which are my favorites too. My only complaint from this concert was that he didn’t sing these songs. I was anticipating that he would definitely sing them but he didn’t. And they ended the whole thing so abruptly, that there was no time to even request the songs. The audience gave him a standing ovation in the end and applauded for a good five minutes, which no doubt he truly deserved.

This man was so old he had trouble standing by himself after a while. But he sang with this soulful melodious voice, which didn’t show any signs of aging at all. I consider it my honor to have witnessed his singing. It will be one memory that I will cherish for the rest of my life.

Buying music CDs: $

Tickets to a concert: $$

Witnessing a 90-yr old legend sing in-person: Priceless

Celebrating Independence Day in a foreign land

Found myself at the Indian High Commission on an early Sunday morning to celebrate the Independence Day. After getting out of school, August 15 meant little more than an annual holiday. Now being in a foreign land, I was compelled to be there at the Indian embassy to celebrate the day. May be I was compelled by a sense of duty to be there when the Tricolor was being unfurled. May be it was a need to justify to my country that I’m not a foreigner, to tell her that I still love you even though I am not with you right now. I don’t know what it was, but I am glad that I was there.

At the celebration, a bunch of school kids were performing to this song and then as is the way with things, they go wrong and all of a sudden, the music just stopped. The poor kids were in a fix, not knowing what to do. Then, something happened. There was this chorus from the audience, singing the song so melodiously and so in sync that it sounded like a practiced performance. The kids then continued to dance as the chorus sang on till they set the audio right.

Had a depressing discussion with a friend about what India doesn’t have and what we have that we should be really proud of. Of course, we argued on a few things but what we agreed upon without a doubt was Indian music and how music binds us all together, in one way or another. I think it’s in our blood.

In the evening, I went to this concert by Shreya Ghoshal. She’s a popular playback singer who made it big recently. She sang quite a few popular hindi numbers and then sang a Bengali song. Though probably 80% of the audience didn’t understand Bengali, they still enjoyed the music, applauded and encouraged her through the song. This can happen only in India, the acceptance to other languages and cultures. We enjoy music in any form, language no bar. Music does bind us all together.

And in the end, when she suddenly burst into the national anthem, the response of the audience was almost synchronized; every single person rose without a moment’s hesitation and sang along. I know it is what we are supposed to do but it was a feeling I cannot begin to describe. For a moment, it was as if we all knew each other. It was a sense of pride, a sense of belonging.