Ma would have said eyes and no eyes....what a ruckus I create sometimes, from oversight or sheer stupidity.. the new Sony WX80 wasn't charging, a charger wasn't available online... ordered a new battery instead... that's when I notice I have been inserting the battery incorrectly....so so silly...offers food for thought, how many challenges in our lives arise from such instantaneous reactions??

Yesterday something good happened after a really really long time…a project got returned with corrections… relief—I had forgotten what that emotion felt like, what being on the right track again felt like. I know there's tons of work ahead, this is only the starter.. yet.

The young girl starts singing crystal clear, falters a bit.. stops almost in tears... asks the judges if she can begin again...The song is Begum Parveeen Sultana's Hamey tumsey pyaar kitna...

She is admonished go ahead, sing the next line but no restarting and what a voice... enough to pull scabs from long healed wounds-- WONDERFUL!

 Last night I chanced upon a ghazal reality show on DD National-- Main khayal hoon kisi aur ka, mujhe chahta koi aur hai-- very good, excellent singing and strong judges in Kavita Krishnamurthy, Devika Pandit and Prof. Brelvi.

http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/bhopal/reality-show-on-classical-music-ghazal.html

Only DD National can offer such content for the soul.

Very difficult to put the experience of the last few days into words. One cannot.  I do not have the vocabulary, and the essence is so rich. But yes, I did feel blessed and I did feel connected to the greats from the ages past. Much gratitude, a life time debt. 

So much still to learn. Also how deceptive appearances can be, when someone looking so simple holds a doctorate in Sanskrit…

Also heard this OUTSTANDING traditional band- dhol tasha band-- that accompanied the procession:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VWzmAlI15Po

EK Cup Chya. One more solidly good Marathi film watched, thanks to DD Sahyadri.  

A bus conductor  who lives in a village gets a light bill for 73,000… and fights back. (I got up and immediately switched off the fan.)The three fourths I saw was very good, the rest of it must be as well—but it was getting late. How is it that Marathi movies get made on sensible budget with a solid storyline?

http://in.reuters.com/article/2009/11/26/idINIndia-44262920091126

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ek_Cup_Chya 

So tomorrow it is; the big day or the bad day or whatever, though the poll verdict seems to be clear. Sadly.

With massive chunks of people not being able to vote, how can this be the mandate of the people?

Now we have 5 years to get our names on the lists.

If its any consolation the markets have been hyper, stocks long asleep, the sleep of decades of a drugged Cinderella, have suddenly jolted awake.

I shall remember what they say about "Raja, vaja, vandra"-- Kings, harmoniums, monkeys, they work as long as they do, and then they don't.

Oh well.

What intense energy, how many dreams in that room… On Sat. I attended a Q&A with Lunchbox Director Ritesh Batra, organized by Dear Cinema. To say it was amazing does not do justice to either Mr. Batra’s generous, freewheeling responses or the range of questions. Few things have stayed with me—begin with the character… and writers block is sheer nonsense…the sheer fussiness involvement with the script...What also came across was the importance of being networked… somewhere I also noticed I was almost the oldest person in that room.. somehow a liberating feeling, nothing to prove… I can mess up as much as I like and it simply doesn’t matter

Some neat links

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lunchbox

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5o4woxWWk_4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H61lZokeB7o

The new Nokia was on silent. Which means I missed or messed up the calls from the writer of the book I transl. He doesn't care for the tx, the treatment. AFTER I filled in one notebook in neat handwriting.... We shall see what happens… but over the weekend I read a book after ages, relishing the written word and the heft of the book, the luxury of looking outside at sunshine on green and doing nothing...

Three hours of the young girl’s first-ever dance recital. Four, the audience restless. What  adrenalin must be pushing her on, each step perfect? The performance includes a piece dedicated to her God, who is different than the Gods prayed to at this event, a  specially composed and choreographed number. Later I see her God too propitiated at the altar on stage.... Only in India…

At a meeting, people step up and share their lifechange stories. No Gods here, only chanting, some as much as ten TEN hours a day. Not my way, but to each his own... Only in India…

At the temple I go to every week, preparations are afoot for a 4 day-religious ceremony to commemorate 5 cr renditions of the 1000 names of Lord Vishnu… momentous… all mistakes we make will accrue to him, and all the punya ours to keep, Guruji says... I'm  speechless. Only in India…

Sunday with a religious OD.

“Kaifi and I… “ watched this play at Prithvi on May 1. Packed audience, encore audience etc etc. Commemorating May day. Also 22 years at work here. Twenty two.  Something nudged me in the polished, flawless performance. Something itched, and throttled me by the collar. Once, there was personal honesty and personal integrity and personal values.Now there is bottomline. so where did "I" go?