Why Spanish - Explanation no. 123

I'm periodically asked, "Why Spanish? Why Spain / Latin America?" (add a dash of puzzlement and throw in a fistful of impatience)

Here goes explanation no. 123. No other language I have come across so far can allow words like these to be penned and and to take it one level higher, be put to a tune so good:

From "tabaco y chanel" by Bacilos

Con olor a tabaco y chanel (with a whiff of tobacco and Chanel)
Me recuerda el olor de su piel ( It reminds me of the smell of your skin)
Una mezcla de miel y café ( a mix of honey and coffee)
Me recuerda el sabor de sus besos ( It reminds me of the flavour of your kisses)

Me preguntan por ella (They ask me about her)
Me preguntan tambien las estrellas ( Even the stars ask me...)
Me recleman que vuelva por ella ( They demand of me that I return for her)
Hay que vuelva por ella...( I have to return for her)

Pero fueron las mismas estrellas (But they were the same stars...)
Que un día marcaron mis manos (that one day marked by hands)
Y apartaron esa flor, esa flor de mi vida (and they set apart that flower...the flower of my life...my life)
De mi vida

Hay que vuelva por ella...( I have to return for her...)

If you hear the song and really feel the words, explanation no. 123 will suffice. :)

(Si hay cualquier erors en mi traduccíon por favor perdóneme porque ahora estoy aprendo todavía jefe)

Once in the life time of anything or anyone

I feel truly privileged to have seen this as it happened. These are the kind of acts that inspire generations of people regardless of where they come from

The Other Side

Isn't it funny & strange how certain things are trumpeted and made so much about when they are actually not a big deal at all? In fact they are not even worthy of more than a passing mention but instead we debate, dissect and try to extrapolate till the ends of the earth. But once you are out on the other side, more than a fleeting sense of liberation, one more importantly is left with a comfortable feeling of self assuredness.

A trivial matter this may have been but it would be prudent to heed the outcome still.

Lurgee

I was asked recently what kind of music I listen to and when I listed out a handful of bands and singled out one of them the reaction was "Yes I've listened to a few of their songs but after a point, they get really weird".

I feel better, I feel better now you've gone.
I got better, I got better, I got strong.
I feel better, I feel better now there's nothing wrong

Now if you'd said this about Phish I would have conceded but not with these guys...they aren't weird honey but mostly melancholy...mostly melancholy.

We are like this only

My Government is totally against imparting sex education. The Government is against aping Western culture in the school syllabus. Sex education does not go well with our country's culture and traditions

And since I hadn't ground my teeth in frustration for a couple of days, our beloved, charismatic & iconic Chief Minister Mr. H.D Kumaraswamy had the above to say yesterday as a reaction to the central Government's directive to impart sex education to school children. I didn't vote for the gent mainly because I wasn't in the city then and am not likely to vote for him or the travesty to democracy that his coalition represents, in the future. And if we were to trace back to how the honorable gent came to power, we will see that it really is HIS government and not the people's.

But that's besides the point. Obviously Mr. HDK is oblivious to 1.2 billion people living in the same country he does, not to mention Khajuraho or Bollywood. And of course he doesn't read...I mean the Times of India that is. So we are all children of God and were brought into this world by way of immaculate conceptions or severe "yajnas" (rituals) & penances performed before Agni, Vishnu, Shiva and the hundreds of other Hindu gods. How dare you say we have sex to procreate??! Preposterous...

And interestingly...Mallya Aditi Int'l school ( an ultra chic premier unaffordable-for-most institution) offers sex education as part of an integrated life skills curriculum that includes conflict management, health & hygiene. The divide is only on the increase & I can feel but pity for some poor (literally) kid from a government school who'll contract AIDS because he or she had no idea what a condom was. I think its time to see that "free hugs" video again, dream sweet Netherlands dreams and go to sleep.

Free Hugs - II

In one of my favourite places in the world...the warmth is only amplified I guess. Power of simplicity. Great audio on this too.

Blu Bop

Discovering new music & new bands is a thrill that comes second to none. Its almost as exhilarating as visiting a place as breathtaking as it may be unlooked for. However, music wins as you cant cherish a place except in a photograph whereas music can be savoured to your heart's content and when one desires.

Watching the video of a Phish concert in Austin, the lead Trey Anastasio talks of how they drove for hundreds of miles to Austin because they heard Béla Fleck & the Flecktones were playing there. And so I came to discover Béla Fleck.

Ever hear the electric banjo?

Carrying it off

Clothes maketh the man. My grandfather would tell me this quite often when I was a little kid, exhorting me to dress sharp. Somewhere that bit of sound advice was lost. One tends to adopt a peer friendly attitude to dressing, especially if we are part of a comfortable, mature & non – judgmental peer group. Of course this may not hold true for women but for the guys, it’s by & large the truth.

However, maybe at times we tend to get a little too comfortable…slipping from casual to sloppy. That’s a fine line and often breached. It could be either because we aren’t aware of it, we don’t care or we assume a fake bravado, flaunting frumpiness as our fashion statement.

So what happens when one tries to break out of a perceived image? The reactions are startlingly acute and make for good conversation topics with pretty girls, if one happens to be at a social gathering. Recent experiences also tell me that acceptance doesn’t come too quickly! Comments, compliments (?) and exclamations abound. However, its fun to do if you’re ok with letting go. And letting go, I’ve come to believe is a skill not easily acquired and one that can also be much cherished once mastered. Of course anthropologists could have further uses to such experiments and if not anything else, you'll get a good idea about your perceived image among your peer group! A real time visual DNA test if you like heh.

As for me, I’m not stowing that shirt away anytime soon.

Livemint

Is a Wall Street Journal newspaper recently launched in Bombay. Among other things, it carries 2 regular columns which I thoroughly enjoy: "Mobius Strip" by Ramesh Ramanathan & "Thinking it Through" by Amit Varma.

In his latest piece, Amit Varma eloquently echoes a sentiment I keep sharing with anyone who cares to listen: that the Nehru - Gandhi legacy in Indian politics is the prime reason India is about 50 years behind several other Asian nations and about a 100 years behind Western Europe. And the scary bit is it isn't over yet.

Jawaharlal Nehru was one of our foremost freedom fighters, but the freedom he fought for was restricted to the political domain. Once the British had been ousted, he replaced them with a new oppressor: the Indian government. He distrusted free trade, and once famously told JRD Tata that profit was “a dirty word.”...continue reading

Visual DNA

My visual DNA. Pretty interesting and more or less true

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Refresh

Poignant. Moving. True. And many more but words seldom (with me they never seem to) suffice when it comes to doing justice in expressing powerful & enjoyable experiences. The Namesake is one such work, subliminally moving yet starkly revealing...love, lust, betrayal, bonds big small strong weak rejected embraced. Irrfan Khan & Tabu are brilliant with Kal Penn not too far behind and the background score...heaven.

To say this is a movie on the Indian story in the States would be to appreciate a very small part of what Mira Nair manages to weave through 2 hours. But it is representative. And it transcends cultures. And now I'm also more than mildly curious about Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol.

Shantaram should be a cracker.

6 pack

Easter greetings from the Onion

Muahaha!

Legislating morality...for over 60 years

Like there aren't enough things already to test my patience, make me grind my teeth in frustration and nod my head in disbelief

• Our great HD Kumara F-ing Swamy's government is talking about banning horse racing. Why exactly, I could not ascertain from the news reports or his (usually) nonsensical comments
  
• In Bombay, the government-police-moral police have again begun to "crack down" on couples enjoying the sunset at Bandstand and other places Amit Varma tells me
• Ban sex education in schools in Maharashtra because 16 year olds are too "tender" to receive this information
  

And bars, restaurants and pubs in Bangalore continue to shut at 11:30. I wish I could get on top of roof tops all around the world and say how much I think this city has degraded, how we Indians are amongst the most two faced, hyppocritical so n so's and why, in general we are prized asses. From Gandhi till today we have stayed true...legislating morality for longer than I care to remember.

Sorry...boiling point reached, eloquence sacrificed on the altar of anger and now better, calmer

Exam Time

I last took a real exam almost 5 years ago! Now in a month's time I have to refresh and prepare for my diploma de español como lengua extranjera - nivel inicial exam: the first of 3 possible levels I aspire to clear as part of an unexplainable goal to learn this language. In order to write this exam I've just had to book e$$$pensive flight tickets all the way to Delhi and back, not to mention the exam fees too. And I have 3 sets of 3 month courses behind me which I hope will be sufficient to gain this qualification and allow me in a certifiable manner, to claim that I speak a decent level of Spanish as a foreigner.

Late nights, early mornings & muchos cafés lie ahead...