Frustrated

I constantly have a cold and some phlegm... almost! It's only in summers that I am able to use my voice as I please. My throat feels so rigid and mute the rest of the time! I am frustrated! Anyone got any ideas? I try to keep away from having salads and try to have only warm food but I just have this constant problem! I just lack the unrestrained (musical) expressiveness and feel so handicapped! :-(

Albela Sajan

I finally got the much awaited opportunity for jamming sessions with my sister who's now in the U.S. Here's our first recording together (first in the cyber age at least)!

It's the song Albela Sajan from the movie Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, with a short aalaap of Ahir Bhairav.

We would welcome your feedback!

Since I now have a great software for recording (thanks to her), I hope that the quality of this track and of my future recordings is better than that of the tracks I've posted so far.

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Aaj Jaane Ki Zid Na Karo

It's been very long since I sang anything. My throat actually feels underutilized and rusty (I don't talk much either ;-) ). Anyway, I attempted something finally. This tender song in Yaman Kalyan is one of the tracks in the movie, Monsoon Wedding, and is a famous Ghazal.

The song is about pleading a loved one not to leave. "Life is bound by time. There is no escape from the rhythm of the world... But moments such as this are our only deliverance from the race against time. Love of my life, let not these moments slip away before you can live them..."

I have removed the mp3 from this post since I subsequently did a better version with Tabla.

Homage : Pink Floyd

I am partially repeating this post from my other blog since it belongs here in the Music blog as well...

This post is intended as a homage to Pink Floyd. It's my most cherished Pink Floyd song and everytime I hear it I quiver.

Shine On You Crazy Diamond

Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Now there's a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
You were caught on the crossfire of childhood and stardom, blown on the steel breeze.
Come on you target for faraway laughter,
Come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine!
You reached for the secret too soon, you cried for the moon.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Threatened by shadows at night, and exposed in the light.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Well you wore out your welcome with random precision,rode on the steel breeze.
Come on you raver, you seer of visions, come on you painter, you piper, you prisoner, and shine!


I consider myself lucky to have had the chance to hear the song live. Ah, Roger Waters, ah, Key Arena, ah, marijuana drenched dreamy smoky air....

Bol Re Papeehara...

I have not been overly fond of this song since the original song in the movie Guddi was at a very high pitch with too little bass for my liking. But I unexpectedly had to learn this song and sing it for a show a few weeks back and I started appreciating the raga, Miyaan Ki Malhaar. So here's my attempt of a romantic melody in which a girl wishes for the monsoon clouds to carry her message to her lover.

Bol Re Papihara.mp...

PS: I know the widget doesn't suit the mood of the raag, but.... oh well... (I liked it too much) :-p!

Bihaag

In my India trip in November I was lucky to get my much awaited Taal Mala I asked my mum to buy for me! I just couldn't wait to get to hear the sound of Tabla any time I wanted. Here's my attempt of a Chhota Khayal in Bihaag, my current favorite raag.

Khayal, or Khyal, which is a Persian word that literally means
thought or imagination came into Hindustani Music from Persian influence during the Mughal times and is by far the most popular style in Hindustani. Khayal compositions are often romantic and this one, Faagun Maas Suhaayo is one such, that describes the month of the new moon and the joyous celebrations of Hori or Holi with Krishna.

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Much as I tried I couldn't get rid of some of the background hum and uneven volume in different parts of the track, sigh! I really need to look into the technicalities of my recording equipment. Having a special external soundcard of supposedly the best quality doesn't seem to be all there is to it.

Lines I read and loved

The following lines from Salman Rushdie's The Ground Beneath her Feet describing the protagonist, Vina Apsara, made an impression on me. They are narrated by Umeed Merchant, aka Rai, a photographer and one of her many lovers:

"... The music of India, from northern sitar ragas to southern Carnatic melodies always created in her a mood of inexpressible longing. She could listen to recordings of ghazals for hours at a stretch, and was entranced, for what? Not, surely, for an "authentic" Indianness that she could never attain? Rather, I must conclude- and this is hard for a lifelong sceptic like me to write- that what Vina wanted was a glimpse of the unknowable. The music offered the tantalising possibility of being borne on the waves of sound through the curtain of maya that supposedly limits our knowing, through the gates of perception to the divine melody beyond.

A religious experience, to be brief, was what she wanted. In a sense, this meant she understood the music far better than I, for its spiritual element is of central importance to so many people, not least the musicians themselves...."

I wholly and completely relate to these beautiful lines. To me music, especially Indian classical music, is a doorway to a different realm of consciousness. And I could never equate it to other forms of art, dance included. Music has an immensely abstract quality amd can penetrate the soul.