/i , but it is heartening to see that em I See You /em is not more of the same. And it s damn good. /p p I initially set out to write a straight music review, proceeding song by song, but soon realized that was not the way to approach this little slice of ambient Bollywood.
The album has the playing in the background and hence unintrusive quality of some of Talvin Singh s work -- except these are also supposed to be filmi gaanas! As I ve framed i I See You /i it sounds like a paradox, although I like to believe that it is not an incoherent one, as it insinuates itself into the listener s mood, sneaking by in its filmi disguise. /p p Vishal s and Shekar s orchestration is impressive here, and the duo is ever conscious of the intended effect: even the most seemingly resonant tracks here -- Subah Subah and Haalo Haalo -- sound much louder when one sings them than they do on the album, where the vocals are never permitted to escape the wider music in which they are embedded.
The achievement -- of control and effect -- is particularly impressive in the case of Haalo Haalo , an ostensibly straight neo-Punjabi tune sung with customary enthusiasm by Sukhwinder Singh and Sunidhi Chauhan. Vishal-Shekhar do not allow this song to get away , smothering its immediacy beneath layers of electronic abstraction. /p p The overall result is a glossy, bejewelled album, certainly impressive, though verging on the lifeless, at least for my ears (Midival Punditz are equally electronic, but far more luxuriant and in-your-face; the musical aesthetic of em I See You /em is almost ascetic by comparison).
But -- and this is a rarity these days -- em I See You /em is an album, and what lingers is the cumulative effect, rather than any one track (although Haalo Haalo comes closest with its relative energy and addictive refrain). /p p As for the rest of the songs: Sunidhi Chauhan s vocals are an especial revelation in Sach Hui once the unmistakably ambient beginning that pays homage to A.R.
Rahman s Chinatown from em Fire /em is out of the way: I for one had not expected her to sound so sweet and girlish as she does here, far from the muscularity and assertive sexuality of em Omkara /em s Beedi . While I certainly don t want the Vishal-Shekhar treatment on a regular basis as applied to Chauhan s resonant voice, in the context of this album it works, serving as a reminder that she is no one-trick pony. /p p Kehna Jai Jo , with its half-hearted nod to lesser fare from Strings, is the least of the album s four songs, although I stress that the variance is -- by design -- not large here.
This is not an album to pick tracks from, but one that will either work for you as a whole -- or won t. It s worth checking out because it s em interesting /em , which is more than I can say for most of what is out there at the moment. /p
A college mate and I had discussed this for the first time about 10 years ago. Last month it surfaced again on reading this post a href= http://www.withinandwithout.
com/?p=1072 on struggling with poems, language and culture /a and then yet again when someone mused about a href= http://suspended-imagination.blogspot.
com/ why did the engine come and break piggy s bones /a ? /p p An excerpt from the secret history of nursery rhymes states that..
.. /p blockquote Many of the origins of the humble nursery rhyme reflect actual events in history!
The secret meanings of the Nursery Rhyme have been lost in the passing of time. A nursery rhyme was often used to parody the royal and political events and people of the day. The humble Rhyme was used as a seemingly innocent vehicle to quickly spread subversive messages!
A rhyme is often short and easy to remember and this was a critical element when many people were unable to read or write and a rhyme was verbally passed from generation to generation - it was also a vital element when commoners wanted to comment on the events of the day! It must be remembered that direct criticism or dissent would often have been punishable by death! /blockquote p So while Jack (of the Jack and Jill fame) was Louis the XVI, Jill who came tumbling after him was the queen Marie Antoinette and Humpty-Dumpty was not this over-weight cute thing we had imagined.
In fact he was not even human; it was a cannon that protect a church in the city of Colchester. And Ring-a-Ring of Roses, made a reference to a deadly plague that gripped England in the 1300 s that left a rosy red rash in the form of a ring, and killed many - which is why - span style= font-style: italic; they all fall down! /p After 200 or so years of narrating rhymes - people got a little weary of them.
Their vocal chords needed rest. So around the middle of the 1500s, they started printing little booklets with these rhymes, also supported by cute illustrations. Thus we see the birth of comics - called Chapbooks.
/p blockquote Chapbook is a small book or pamphlet containing poems, ballads, stories, or religious tracts . More people during this time were learning to read but the chapbooks were also popular with people who could not read as they contained pictures, in the printed form of crude wood engravings - A Middle Ages equivalent of a Children s comic! /blockquote p Though it has not been mentioned explicitly, one can infer that, since these chapbooks were amongst the first forms of printed literature available, people learning how to read used these and would have probably set a precedent there in including these rhymes in any toddler s coursework.
Besides these rhymes had some elements in their structure and language that made it easy for people to remember them - the alliteration in Hickory Dickory dock or phonetic words like baa baa in the one with the black sheep - which could have aided their continued presence in the pre-school syllabus. /p One reason is that these rhymes have become sacred cows in their own right. Attempts at revising these rhymes have not met with much success - a) people believe that these rhymes have been part of our childhood for generations and revising them would be losing some of that legacy and b) a href= http://en.
wikipedia.org/wiki/Nursery_rhyme some sources state that blockkquotes /a such rhymes allow children to imaginatively deal with violence and anger and revising them would mean that we are poorer as a society because of the lost opportunities to discuss obsolete values /blockquotes /p p I don t completely agree with either - my mother and grandmother did not grow up reciting Goosey Goosey Gander. They had rhymes of their own.
And if at all there is a loss of legacy - it has been for those indigenous rhymes that we have lost. Coming to the second reason - though these rhymes could act as starting points to stir up discussions on racial or religious hatred but i suppose 5 or 6 would not be the right age to broach such subjects..
.don t you agree? It would be more appropriate fodder for grown-up discussions.
/p p On one of my recent trips home, I heard my 3 yr old niece recite span style= font-style: italic; hindi /span rhymes ( span style= font-style: italic; machli jal ki rani hai...
jeevan uska paani hai and bandar mama...
pehan pyjama /span ) taught to her by my mother. Some I had heard before, some were new to me - but none of them were the text book rhymes I was familiar with. I did a quick search to see if I these rhymes were popular with others too.
I found a whole host of pages dedicated to them. a href= http://www.indiaparenting.
com/rhymes/index.shtml Indian Nursery Rhymes /a has poems in many Indian languages. /span a href= http://www.
karaditales.com/karadishopping/rhymes.php Karadi Rhymes /a has two CDs full of indigenous compositions like span style= font-style: italic; my name is Madhavi.
..I m from Allepey .
/span Even if it may not be possible to bring about quick changes to the official school syllabi, I hope at least outside of the system there is a change in what kids are taught and so that can reduce the number of instances where kids are wondering why most of their nursery rhyme characters are falling, hurting and having their crowns and bones broken all the time span style= font-style: italic; /p
Note to mention by Kamal Haasan s excellent articulation of a middle-aged, low key cop (low key, that is, barring the somewhat incongruous opening sequence, wherein Raghavan beats the crap out of an entire gang all by his lonesome), one tormented by his failure to save his late wife from criminals eight years ago, and anguished by the brutal rape and murder of his best friend s daughter. /p p Unfortunately, the second film, which begins when the killers are introduced, is a crude, lurid crapfest of a movie, involving much yelling, pointless plot developments, and rather sordid violence against women. The result is that em Vettaiyaadu Vilayaadu /em is one confused movie, its two halves never quite gelling into anything coherent.
/p p I couldn t shake the impression ( a href= http://brangan.easyjournal.com/entry.
aspx?eid=3202440 confirmed by Menon s recent interview with Baradwaj Rangan /a ) that Menon felt he had to compromise on his vision in order to make a commercially safe film. One wonders if he went too far: certainly Menon s previous film -- i Kaaka Kaaka /i -- was very successful, and that episode in a police officer s life did not have the acrid smell of blatant compromise so thick about it.
/p p Overall, I would say that the film is worth watching more for Kamal s performance than anything else. em Vettaiyaadu Vilayaadu /em confirms my impression that he is best in relatively understated roles. Doubtless, within the parameters of mainstream cinema Kamal certainly has one here, and he handles it with authority laced with the odd vulnerable moment.
/p p The latter highlighting the fact that although the film may have begun on an overman note, DCP Raghavan is no larger-than-life mangod. More pity, then, that Menon did not stay true to his vision: either an out-and-out masala film, or a relatively realistic em policier /em , would have been preferable to this mish-mash, which cannot but impinge on Raghavan s characterization in all sorts of unfortunate ways. /p p Kamal and Jyotika make for a good pair, and are that rarest of things, namely a mature couple playing characters close to their real ages.
In the film s first half their interludes highlight the grey nature of the world Raghavan and Maya inhabit; in the second half one is relieved to get some reprieve from the baddies. /p p A word on the songs: Harris Jayaraj s music is better than some of his recent (disappointing) fare, though the videos are uniformly disappointing (it is especially difficult to forgive Menon his lame conceptualization of Paartha Mudhal ). /p p All in all, this is a disappointing outing for Menon as far as I am concerned, and only Kamal fans will be sad to miss this one.
/p
/p p It turns out your host at the studio happens to know a bunch of old time blues musicians, they record right here in this studio all the time. So when he says how would you like it if I invite some of them over to jam with you, you might be a little intimidated but you still jump at the chance. /p blockquote John Dee Holeman turned up.
..he picked up an old guitar and started to play.
.. well like he d been doing it all his life.
..All week we had been going over songs, arrangements.
..Arguing over this and that.
..When John Dee picked up that guitar and started playing it was the most natural thing in the world.
..as natural and easy as taking a walk .
..John Dee Holeman took a walk with his guitar and the Waifs tagged along.
.. Vikki Thorn lead singer of The Waifs /blockquote p The Waifs are a folk group from Australia who have started to make a name for themselves at home and abroad.
The last time Bob Dylan toured Australia he sought them out so they could open for him throughout the tour. But all it took for them to be reduced to awe struck children and students again - as evidenced from the quote above by one of the Thorn sisters who lead the group - was to spend the afternoon with John Dee Holeman recording the eleven tracks that have been released as I John Dee Holeman The Waifs Band /I /p p So who is this John Dee Holeman who can reduce a group of young professional, successful musicians to awe struck fans? Well obviously he s an old time Blues musician: his birth certificate and the way he knows his way around a guitar prove that.
John was born in 1929 in North Carolina and was playing guitar by the time he was fourteen. br/ He learned the basics from his older brothers, but his real education came from listening to the music of Piedmount Blues player a href= http://www.unctv.
org/piedmontblues/jdholeman.html Blind Boy Fuller /a on records. Piedmount Blues is a smoother, more country flavoured sound that came out of North Carolina and areas similar.
It probably came about as a result of the cross pollination of the spirituals sung by the black slaves and the Irish and Scottish folk music being sung by the white farmers. /p p However it was born its sound is as smooth as silk and leaves lots of room for finger picking on the part of the guitar player, or just about any type of plucking, strumming, and or worry of strings that a player wants. John Dee will sometimes play with a claw hammer style, echoing the days he used to play banjo, but then again John has evolved his own way of doing just about everything to do with the Blues in the years he s been playing.
/p p All you have to do is start listening to the music the Waifs and John Dee recorded and you ll see how special a player and singer he is. (He can t dance while playing guitar anymore, as he s had a couple of strokes and they ve slowed him down a little, but he used to also be a pretty mean tap/clog dancer) From the opening track, his version of John Henry you just know you re in for a treat. br/ First off, for all Ms.
Thorn s protestations, the Waifs are all pretty damn good players themselves, and provide some really sweet accompaniment all the way through the disc. I ve always had a weakness for a well-played snare drum with acoustic music, so I personally appreciated the sound of brushes scrapping rhythmically during some of the swingier or mountain influenced tunes. /p p Looking Yonder Comin (If you can t hear Orange Blossom Special or Hear My Train A Comin in that song you need to get your ears checked) is a perfect example of a great meeting of musical styles.
It starts off sounding like it could be country gospel, then John s voice starts moving into another emotional pitch and we re now in Blues territory. /p p Then they move into their final song which is a rousing version /jam of Baby Please Don t Go . It becomes an extended jam of guitars, harmonica, base and brushes slapping across the surface of a snare drum, until John decides they ve had enough and winds it down.
Remember this is a very relaxed informal gathering, a group of talented musicians hanging out in the studio with the tape just happening to be rolling. (I thought I had imagined it the first time, but during a second listen I definitely hear a baby cry on the song Country Gal , which makes sense as it s as mournful a blues heartbreaker as you re liable to hear anywhere this side of the Mississippi or the other.) /p p Everyone can say all they want about the fact that the Music Makers organization is preserving pieces of our past with their recordings.
But as far as I m concerned when I hear something like this disc and the music sung with such passion and played with such enthusiasm there s nothing remotely old fashioned or dated about this music. How can music that comes from the soul and speaks to heart have a date stamped on it? /p p I John Dee Holeman The Waifs Band /I is one of those rare occasions where you feel like a fly on the wall sitting in on a private jam sessions between musicians playing just because they ve got the chance.
Maybe there s a mistake or two that would have been eliminated if they had been recording but the immediacy and sheer enthusiasm for the music at hand more then compensate for any slip-up. /p p Take some time in your busy day and put this disc in a player and forget your troubles for close to an hour. It s easy when you hear people playing like this.
It will make you feel that all is right with the world. I m sure The Waifs do after that afternoon in the studio. /p
rediff.com/money/2007/jan/10sarin.htm Arun Sarin /a had it written into his contract that if and when his time came, he could not be asked to go by electronic mail or any other electronic messaging service.
I read this in the context of a report that a UK-based insurance company had sacked 2,400 of its employees via terse e-mail. /p p By insisting that hiring and firing be done with some dignity, Mr. Sarin can be said to have set a precedent for HRDs.
But then, do many of those who get fired really care? The shock could be the same whether you learn of it through a decently drafted e-mail or a three-word SMS, saying u r out . /p p I once got sacked, but it happened decades before our graceless Internet era.
I was then a proof-reader at a London printers. You got paid weekly, on Friday afternoons. And got sacked as well on Fridays.
An hour before clock-out on Fridays, the cashier used to go round the printing works carrying a tray of sealed envelopes, and handing out pay packets to shop-floor employees. Like others, I awaited the cashier s arrival with the usual eagerness on that fateful Friday afternoon. He came, delivered, and left.
He had left in my packet more money, twice my weekly pay. /p p Could it have been an accounting error? When I went to him, the cashier assured me there had been no mistake and that all the money was mine for keeps.
He also let it be known that the company no longer needed my services. That extra cash was in lieu of the one-week notice period. Can you think of a nastier way of getting sacked?
Gracelessness was the standard operating procedure for some companies. /p p There were exceptions. In i Life /i magazine, it was said they didn t believe in sacking their staff.
Instead, the chosen ones were made to feel so unwanted that they left on their own, sooner than later. Writing about her experiences in a book, i Such Is Life /i , a former staffer described how those who fell out of favour were put through what the author termed the Treatment by the i Life /i management. A senior writer under Treatment found his desk on the editorial floor occupied by someone on his return from vacation.
He found his personal effects shifted, in his absence, to an office on the floor above. /p p At his new office the staff writer was given a room to himself, with larger carpet space. However he was no longer asked to attend editorial conferences.
No assignment came his way. He was left to his own devices. The management believed their dignified indifference would drive most people to resignation.
But they misjudged the staff writer who used his time in the cooler to write a novel. It got rave reviews. When the management realised he was building up a successful writing career at i Life s /i expense, the man got relocated to his earlier desk on the editorial floor.
/p
That would be the Native Americans, First Nations, Aboriginals, or whatever label you feel like affixing to them. /p p In the Carolinas it was no exception and the original people were the Tuscarora. Now for most people who have even heard of the Tuscarora it s only because they are known as the nation that was the sixth of the Six Nations to join the Iroquois Confederacy.
The truth of the matter was that they were on the run and looking to escape white encroachment on their lands when they joined up with the Iroquois. /p p But for the Tuscarora who weren t able to make good on the escape up north to what s now New York state, they ended up sharing a lot of the same experiences as the black slaves, including being made into slaves right beside them. So there was a fair bit of co-mingling of music going on right from those earliest days of settlement.
In fact according to singer songwriter Pura Fe the two peoples shared so much in common that when the Tuscarora were free they became an integral stop on the Underground railroad helping slaves escape to Canada. /p p Pura Fe should know about things like this because she can trace back her maternal Tuscarora line far enough to know that she s the fourth generation in a row of seven singing sisters. So the singing style and music she learned from her mother, goes back to the time of her great-grand mother, which even at a conservative estimate would be the late 1800 s.
br/ When you listen to her sing on her latest album, I Follow Your Heart s Desire /I on the Music Maker label, you can understand how she ties into their mission of supporting music that is in danger of being lost. You can hear elements of almost every kind of old time music wrapped up in her songs, but there s also an underpinning of something distinct. /p p I don t even mean the obvious inclusion of Tuscarora language lyrics, or even native instruments like turtle shell rattles or drums; unfortunately you can find those instruments a dime a dozen on new age CDs these days.
(Although finding anyone speaking the Tuscorora language would be a lot more surprising as it s one of the tongues that was almost successfully made extinct by North American government assimilation programs. You can probably count of your hands and feet the number of completely fluent native-born Tuscarora speakers left in the world, current generations are having to be re taught to speak it as a second language.) It s more like there is a certain quality to her singing or an undercurrent to her music that makes it distinct from anything else you ve heard before.
/p p What I noticed first was her voice, one moment it would sound just like any other woman singer s voice that played around in the higher registers, the next moment there would be an almost rumble or growl in the back of her throat as some passion began to overwhelm her. /p p It may not be a traditional Blues voice singing a traditional Blues songs, but it s a voice, and a song, born out of the same emotional base that inspired the men and women from that area to sing the blues and the stories of their lives and families. Pura Fe does much the same thing as those who came before her, singing about love and betrayal, about wanting the right person, and being with the wrong one.
/p p But she also sings the stories of her people, and I don t mean the cute little folk tales you read in the anthropology books either. But of the heartbreak of being different and the hatred directed against them by those too scared to do anything but hate and envy. The song Della Blackman Pick and Choose is about her great aunt who was raped and killed by the Ku Klux Klan for daring to try and go see her family after marrying a white man.
/p p Then there are the songs specifically about her nation the Tuscarora and how she first came back to the Carolinas, meeting her cousins for the first time in the song Goin Home . Like all good Blues songs these are full of pain, happiness and longing. But unlike so many songs the longing is for the land - to reconnect to where the spirit of her family resides.
/p p On I Follow Your Heart s Desire /I Pura Fe shows a remarkable talent for both song writing and singing. For those of you who have never heard her before this is an ideal opportunity. Not only is she in fine voice on this disc, but she is joined by some really fine musicians who provide both Native and Carolina style backing for her.
/p p For those of you who know her from Ulali, the acappella group she founded, you will recognise the versatility of her voice if not the musical styles she is exploring here. For those of you who have heard Pura Fe before I Follow Your Heart s Desire /I will be an experience you ll not soon forget. br/
To our minds it must seem unconscionable, but in the world created by Yasmina Khadra and in the head of Nafa Walid, his protagonist in I Wolf Dreams /I , it s simply the path of least resistance. /p p Since winning its independence from France in 1962, Algeria has been a secular state, but in the mid to late eighties, fundamentalists are beginning to take over mosques in areas where they know they will be able to recruit. Initially keeping a low profile in the community at large, they gradually began to expand out from their power base in the mosque.
/p p In the Casbah of Algiers where Nafa Walid lives the changes are only gradually noticeable. But when he loses a job yet again, this time after refusing to be party to covering up the murder of a young woman by his employer, he turns to the mosque for the comfort of the familiar and to try and deal with his shame for what he believes is his complicity in the girl s death. /p p In his disillusioned and despondent state he is ripe for the picking by the fundamentalists.
Like any cult, they find those who have been alienated and then move in to fill the void. They offer a ready-made purpose, a sense of belonging, and best of all they ve reduced everything to a black and white equation. Something is either right or wrong and there is no room for debate or you are wrong.
/p p But it s not until after the food riots of 1988 (Algeria was short of everything - demonstrations turned to riots so bad that the army was sent in. Not trained in crowd control, somebody panicked and began firing at a crowd. Nearly five hundred people eventually were killed and thousands more arrested) that the fundamentalists hit their stride in Algeria.
Contending that they were the supporters of the poor and downtrodden, they said, Follow us and we will change the way things are run. /p p In their brave new world it would be the righteous being taken care of, while those who had been sucking the country dry would be gotten rid of. They offered a banner that people could flock behind and feel like they were on the right side.
Those who would openly speak against them became fewer and fewer as it became less and less healthy to do so. /p p But it wasn t until the election of 1991 when the fundamentalist party were leading after the first round of voting, looking set to form the next government and the army declared the elections null and void and took power for themselves that the terror campaign began with car bombs, ambushes, and any other means at their disposal, and always the same targets - the police, the army, the intellectuals, the scientists, women who wouldn t wear the hijah (veil), and the artists. If you were not one of them you were the enemy and didn t deserve to live.
/p p Nafa stays on the fringes, telling himself that he doesn t want to kill anyone. So instead he works for them. He takes on the job of ferrying packages through roadblocks.
He drives a taxi and doesn t look identifiably like a terrorist so, even though his cab might have its secret panels filled with weapons or money, he s not given much trouble at the roadblocks. He learns the trick of not letting himself be provoked by the police and lets them do as they will even to the point of taking a beating on occasion. /p p All around him are terror and mayhem but he continues on thinking that he is staying out of it; he has become used to the sight of corpses, just like the children of the Casbah who have gotten used to the rows of heads left each morning on the spikes of railings.
Informants, police officers, anyone who is considered a non-believer or has been fingered for saying anything that sounds heretical are all equally guilty in the eyes of the Front Islamique du Salut (FIS - Islamic Salvation Front). /p p Nafa is happy, for the first time in his life, he tells himself he is doing something useful for the community. The taxi he drives was once the property of an arrested freedom fighter, and the money he earns goes towards feeding the family of the jailed person.
The salary he draws is sufficient that he is able to bring food into the house for his family, and finally prove to his father that he is not the wastrel he always took him for. /p p Of course it can t last forever and the police come for him one night when he s out. He comes home to find his family s apartment surrounded and only a hastily whispered warning tells him to leave.
He is taken into hiding, until it can figured out what to do with him. On the second day he receives a visit from a comrade who tells him that the police killed his father when they came looking for him. /p p From then on he becomes a killer because he believes he must revenge the death of his father in any way that he can.
The first time is hard, it s true, but it s not his fault. Why did the magistrate have to be the way he was so that he Nafa had to kill him? Why did the revolver keep shooting the man long after he was dead?
There was no reason for it to do that. /p p The leader of his group says not to worry, after the third one it gets easier, and Nafa is relieved to find out that is true. Why, he can even be present at the murder of someone he knows and watch him have his throat slit in front of his family calling out Nafa s name.
Of course he did have a little problem sleeping that night, but it passed. /p p He is living the life he always wanted with his group. They are to pretend they are the children of upper class families and they live according to that lifestyle, with dispensation to frequent dens in order to ferret out targets.
Nafa even has his own room with a large screen television. /p p But even among the most paranoid of organizations betrayal can happen, and in one fell swoop the police manage to arrest the whole national leadership. After the dust has settled and all the infighting is done Nafa finds he has been transferred out of the city into the countryside.
Someone who he had pissed off at some point in time is now in charge. /p p He has an hour to go and say goodbye to his mother and she barely lets him in the house. She accuses him of abandoning her and his sisters.
He won t stand for that and gets indignant and exclaims, I ve been revenging the death of my father at the hands of the police. /p p She laughs in his face, You killed your father. When he demanded of the police what they wanted of his good son who provided for his family they showed him proof you were one of the terrorists.
He was so upset he dropped dead of a heart attack on the spot...
/p p In the countryside they are the kings. They are like armies of feudal lords who collect tithes from the surrounding villages through threats and intimidation instead of having to work. They hide out in their mountain redoubts kidnapping, murdering, and looting keeping the people in the surrounding villages loyal to the cause and safe from any retaliatory strike the local militias can mount.
/p p Nafa works hard to prove himself, although his pride is injured that they won t let him kill people and only be a goat herder. It s not fair he says quietly to himself, knowing that any word of disquiet can have you killed as non-believer, hadn t he proven that he knew how to kill. He begins to sulk and feel hard done by again.
/p p The inevitable happens and even though Nafa gets to prove himself time and time again when the army uses artillery and helicopter gun ships they haven t a chance. Hoping for something he and a couple other survivors head back to Algiers hoping to hide out in the Casbah; surely somebody will want to shelter heroes of the revolution? The answer is no and they are destroyed.
/p p Terrorists aren t fanatical believers to start with, they are empty shells of people lying scattered on the ground waiting for something to come along and fill them with hope. If not hope then purpose will do, and if that fails anger. Nafa with his head full of unrealistic dreams which are constantly dashed, Nafa with no real hope of doing anything beyond menial work for people who despise him and don t even recognise him as being of the same species, is the perfect terrorist.
/p p Like I In The Name Of God /I before, what is so chilling about I Wolf Dreams /I is how the author shows how easy it is to become something that has no sense of right or wrong anymore. No matter how much they bleat about God or the good of the people, for the average terrorist none of that really means anything. /p p If on the same day that they had taken the first steps towards becoming a terrorist somebody had been able to convince them of the virtues of male prostitution they would have done that instead.
A terrorist is a person who takes the path of least resistance when it comes to living, whatever looks easiest and with the highest reward is for them. /p p Maybe that s why they call them resistance fighters? br/
/i /p a href= http://www.myspace.com/junkyardgroove1 Junkyard Groove /a is an alt/punk rock band from Chennai, India.
It consists of Ameeth Thomas on the vocals and rhythm, Siddharth Srinivasan on the lead guitar, Jeremiah John on the drums and Craig Maxworth on bass. This group of exceptionally talented musicians has created a dedicated fan following among college students and rock crazy yuppies in South India over the past year and a half. /p p They have an exemplary track record of winning prizes in every competition they have taken part in.
Some of their achievements include: br/ [1] u Le Royal Meridian, Chennai {2005} /u :Junkyard Groove landed up in second place and bagged the best guitarist award too. br/ [2] u Spandan 2005 {JIPMER, Pondicherry} /u : Junkyard Groove won best band, vocalist, guitarist, drummer, own composition and second best bassist and rhythm. Never really left much for anyone else!
!! br/ [4] u Madras Christian College /u : Junkyard Groove won in the best band and best drummer categories.
br/ [5] u IIM Bangalore /u : The band came in second and also won best bassist. br/ [6] u Raagam 2006 {IIT Chennai} /u : The band made it through to the finals and walked away with best guitarist and a fancy little guitar as a prize. /p p In the one and half years since the band was formed, Junkyard Groove has established itself as one of India s premier rock bands.
They recently made international headlines when they won the a href= http://www.shamalbattle.com Shamal: Battle for Dubai Desert Rock Festival /a on December 15 in Dubai.
As you know, a href= http://www.gulfweeklyworldwide.com/article.
asp?Sn=4016 Article=14195 Shamal /a is a talent hunt by music industry experts for the best, unsigned rock band in and around the Middle East to open up for some of the biggest international rock bands in the world. a href= http://xrivatsan.
com/?p=15 Junkyard Groove beat seven other participants /a - DaVinci [Egypt], Point Of View [Dubai], a href= http://www.myspace.
com/gutterment Pin Drop Violence /a [India], a href= http://www.myspace.com/gorthall Gorthall /a [Dubai], Hydrophobia [Dubai], a href= http://www.
myspace.com/wastedland1 Wasted Land /a [Saudi Arabia] and Whimagon [Iran] in the finals. /p p i Seven unsigned bands from in and around the Middle East took to the stage in this intense battle between India, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Egypt.
All genres of rock music were played from metal, melodic, death metal, acoustic, alternative, funk and gothic. br/ The event was an intense 4 hours, with the crowd pulsating to the music. At least 1,000 people attended with bus loads turning up from Abu Dhabi to give their support.
All cultures attended, here to support their countries, here to support their music scene. br/ The bands standard of live performance and musical composition was high. The judges commented that it was a hard decision to decide on a winner, but there could only be one band that could walk away with this phenomenal prize.
.. br/ b Junkyard Groove /b from India were that band!
Fusing rock with funk to give an uplifting style that reaches out to all ages, they wowed the audience with a tight, high energy, flawless, musical stage performance...
.. /i /p p Well, I first saw them play in Spandan 2005 in JIPMER, Pondy, and I admit I was simply bowled over by their incredible music.
And since then, I ve watched them onstage four times till date, and I must tell you that these people create magic onstage! This band has the potential to break into the big league, and can succeed at the international level. If you are curious, just listen to their music at their a href= http://www.
myspace.com/junkyardgroove1 MySpace site /a . And check out this homemade video of their song Its Okay : br/ p Well, here s some info about each member of the band.
.. /p img alt= Ameeth.
bmp src= http://blogs.epicindia.com/kanjisheik/images/Ameeth.
bmp width= 105 height= 139 align= left / Ameeth has played in quite a few bands in the past and has a talent for songwriting. Like most of the other members in JYG, Ameeth s quest for the right band did not quite work out until he found JYG. br/ Despite his eccentric behavior on stage, he has a talent for making one listen to what he has to say, which is rather entertaining, and has shaped JYG s style.
br/ He is open to any genre and fulfills the requirement of any song thrown his way. An extremely enthusiastic personality and has music in his family for years now. A complete treat to watch on stage, the party kinda person with a party kinda job.
Loves to smoke and laugh in the most inappropriate of situations. br/ Ameeth s influences include Dave Matthews Band, John Butler Trio, Pearl Jam and lots more. His sense of commitment to Junkyard Groove proves that this band is here to stay.
/p img alt= Craig.bmp src= http://blogs.epicindia.
com/kanjisheik/images/Craig.bmp width= 106 height= 138 align= left / Born and brought up in Chennai, Craig played bass for quite a few bands in his early days. After his previous band did not work, he gave up playing bass and resorted to the simpler life.
But things were about to change when he met Jerry and Ameeth. br/ Calm as can be, yet capable of snapping into a fit of violence with that guitar of his. Liquid like bass lines and funk underlined tones bring him down to fitting in just right.
A hard worker and a team player, he s highly appreciated by the rest of the band. br/ His influences have been Dave Matthews Band, Audioslave, RHCP, Rage Against the Machine, Miles Davis, Marcus Miller and loads more..
. Craig now vows to go through the hard work and create some good quality music with Junkyard Groove. /p img alt= Jerry.
bmp src= http://blogs.epicindia.com/kanjisheik/images/Jerry.
bmp width= 101 height= 141 align= left / Jerry, a Dubai born Indian, came down to India for further studies and to get back to his roots. Like any other Dubai born Indian who uses the excuse to come back to India to study, he attempted drumming for a few bands, trying to find that special something. After about 4 years of living in India and about 4 bands later, he realized that Junkyard Groove shared the same passion as he did.
br/ He drives this message home with his hard pounding yet soulful work on the skins. One of a kind around the city and loves to break it down to killer funk beats and once in a while, he spits out some gut wrenching thrash beats. There s no stopping this guy when he s on a roll.
Having been at the skins many years now, the fluency shows in his many Best Drummer Awards , proof that he has indeed worked his ass out. br/ His influences are Dave Matthews Band, Incubus, Dennis Chambers, Carter Beauford etc..
.. Jerry has given up a lot for Junkyard Groove, to reach his own goals, which by the way works out just right for JYG.
/p img alt= sid.bmp src= http://blogs.epicindia.
com/kanjisheik/images/sid.bmp width= 103 height= 141 align= left / Baby face would be apt to describe this guy. Siddharth has played in numerous bands throughout school and college and takes a lot of pride in playing with JYG.
Influenced by funk and blues bands, Junkyard Groove fits him in just right. br/ Cool calm and collected, his sound is unique and different. He takes a lot of care to ensure that he gets the best sound out of those pedals and leaves sound engineers confused when he tells them what he needs!
br/ Sid, the youngest of the lot, leaves guitarists, much older than him, spell bound. Whether its razor sharp riffs or cleverly crafted solos, he s the kinda guy that adds to JYG s unique sound. He certainly is a versatile musician and can throw you into a wall of sound, letting you know that JYG is in the house.
br/ His influences have been a lot of classic rock, mixed with some funk. Bands like Guns in Roses, Deep Purple, Red Hot Chili Peppers etc..
. have been his Idols. JYG just wouldn t be the same without this kid.
/p Wed, 10 Jan 2007 15:20:44 EST
Their father, a petty official finds his solace and comfort in drink and has little to offer to his daughters. /p p The story underlines the social hypocrisy of the upper castes, which make much of their high caste, their purity and their separateness from the Dalits in public by practising covert untouchability and yet in private exploit the same people sexually and otherwise. Vinodini connects fact with fiction by making references to the gut-wrenching a href= http://www.
gunaah.com/drafts/article2.php3?
id=228 name=SEX%20CRIMES sid=4 u Banwaridevi case /u /a , where she was gang-raped in front of her husband by the village supremos, the Rajasthan High Court, while acquitting the accused, noted that Banwaridevi was from a lower caste. The men indicted were from a higher caste. It was not possible for men from the higher caste to rape a woman from the lower caste!
/p p In i Mariya /i , a similar situation occurs. Mariya is raped by her Brahmin landlord Venkateswara Rao and is scrumptiously observed by her younger sister, who has already been raped by Venkateswara s son, Malli. After Mariya commits suicide in shame and her body is discovered, her sister does the unthinkable and confronts the upper caste landlord but of course to no avail.
Venkateaswara Rao s elder brother who comes into the crisis eulogizes the stain free ancestry of his family and how they have through the generations, scrupulously adhered to the ceremonies of ritual purity and how they had disowned their own younger sister because she happened to marry a i shudra /i . /p p Vinodini has described the situation of the Dalit Christian sandwiched between the contempt of the upper caste Hindu and the apathy of the church and has depicted even better the situation of the Dalit Christian woman. As a a href= http://http://www.
dalitchristians.com/Html/condition.htm u Dalit Christian website /u /a expressively puts it Rape is a common phenomenon in rural areas.
Women are raped as part of caste custom or village tradition. Dalit girls have been forced to have sex with the village landlord. In rural areas, women are induced into prostitution (Devadasi system).
.., which [is] forced on them in the name of religion.
The prevalence of rape in villages contributes to the greater incidence of child marriage in those areas. Early marriage between the ages of ten years and sixteen years persists in large part because of Dalit girls vulnerability to sexual assault by upper-caste men; once a girl is raped, she becomes unmarriageable. An early marriage also gives parents greater control over the caste into which their children are married.
/p p Dalit women face the triple burden of caste, class, and gender. Dalit girls have been forced to become prostitutes for upper-caste patrons and village priests. Sexual abuse and other forms of violence against women are used by landlords and the police to inflict political lessons and crush dissent within the community.
/p
It was a genuinely refreshing drive. In spite of the overindulgence on flight travels salving our national every one no matter what gotta fly consumer cravings, the joys of the open road always beckons me. I had made up my mind to throw off the demands of scheduling and speed, remain unplugged for two days and traverse the two-lane a href= http://www.
hindustantimes.com/2005/Dec/24/181_1581200,0035.htm u em cheeky smooth /em /u /a Indian highways.
It was a pleasant and relatively traffic-free ride along quiet tree-shaded lanes, only a little arduous towards the end because of the potholes and drive through the village amidst cattle. /p p Not many people were in sight on the route except, when nearing the village (near Konark), a boy tending a small herd of scraggy cows showed up. The day was bright and sunny and we stood beside a well to drink some water, though dubiously colored liquid.
The fifty or sixty huts and cottages that made up the village s single straggling street, with their unevenly thatched grass roofs, low irregular mud walls and rough bamboo uprights, depressed me a little with their squalid appearance. A few inhabitants squat in the shade in front of their unattractive dwellings decorated on the exterior walls with cow dung cakes (used as fuel). A dark brown, sad woman with half-hidden shriveled breasts approached the well, stared at us and filled her earthen pitcher with water.
When she was about to leave, I approached her for a pic and she acknowledged it. br/ p I find I have contracted the disease that infects most travelers and shutter bugs; life without a camera is like life sans air. /p p What immediately struck me on arriving at the site was the dramatic nature of the setting: the massive structure sitting in solitary grandeur surrounded by luxuriant gardens.
A magnificent and imposing bulk of carefully carved black granite. The temple is dedicated to Sun God. Konark is also known as i Konaditya /i .
The name Konark is derived form the words i Kona - Corner /i and i Arka - Sun /i . Konark is also known as i Arkakshetra /i . /p p I just couldn t imagine the skills of the craftsmen at the time of building the temple.
The temple is a magnificent piece of art and architecture. Different types of stone embroidery can be seen on the temple walls. Fantastic sculptures emerge out of the temple and make their mark.
Beautiful figures are drawn and carved on whole of the temple top. The temple is also referred to as Black Pagoda (black since it is carved from black granite) and is also one of the sets of grand Indian temples. br/ p The Konark Sun Temple is widely known for its architecture and artwork.
It depicts the Orissian architectural art. Stretched across almost 2 kms of beach the temple makes it mark as the gigantic figure of art. The entire temple has been designed so as to look like a chariot of the sun god driven by Ganga and King Narasimha Deva.
There are 24 wheels, which are each about 5 feet in radius. It also has a set of spokes and mesmerizing carvings. The temple is been dragged by seven horses.
At the entrance there are two lions, which are like guards. There are also these crushing elephants, which are seen there. br/ p Steps lead to the main entrance of the temple.
There are numerous complex carvings on the temple. There are beautiful animals carved on the temple. There are different types of warriors carved.
The most attractive part of carvings is that of the Sun God. Mythological deities, beautiful flowers, battles, etc are some more types of carvings seen here. There are also some erotic style carvings done on the temple.
Small carvings are also done with utmost care and intricate art. br/ p Some of the main parts of the temple are ruined. Wherever you go the beauty and art is different and unique.
In front of the Jagmohana there is a Natya Mandir, which is also carefully carved with excellence. The best thing about the Konark Sun Temple is that most of its part has not been destroyed due to its age but because of the nature. It is now maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India and it is an UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Although they are doing a creditable job but nature is taking its toll, the hot moist air of the sea is constantly eroding the Temple at an alarming rate. Today the temple seems to be surrounded by a metallic cage. Metallic structure support parts of the temple, which are on the verge of collapsing.
br/ p Very near to Konark is a href= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pipili u em Pipili /em /u /a , known for its wall hangings, sunshades, lampshades and lot many other types of handicrafts.
These handiwork are a must buy when one goes there, and with a little bit of bargaining you can really get the items for attractive prices. br/ p The entire structure is surrounded by lush green gardens and these are neatly maintained. With loads of tourists, many tourist hotels have come up and few of these are also managed by Orissa Tourism Department.
There are tourists from all over India and also there are many foreign tourists too. The tour guides wait to pounce on a white-skinned person to make a few extra bucks. Since, I was there with my friend, later joined by a white skinned Swedish friend who was working on a project with UN, we had a tough time declining the flurry of requests from these tour guides.
The ice broke when I started speaking in the local language i Oriya /i . Tender coconut, cucumber and local food in the series of small shops is a must try for the taste buds. br/ p Few minutes before we left, we three (me, my Indian friend and my Swedish friend) were accosted by a family from Kolkata who wanted us to pose with them for a photo and then another with a family from the US.
Soon after, it was a family from UP who seemed to be more interested in the presence of a foreigner at the site rather than in the site itself. /p p Located near the complex is the Konark Museum. It houses some of the sculpture removed from the temple including a reconstructed wheel.
As not much can be done to prevent the temple from eroding away, the remaining pieces are being removed to the safe custody of the museum to save them from further damage. /p p Visiting Konark is like a trip back in time, a journey into the pages of history and an experience no historical book could ever provide. That s why, the poet Rabindranath Tagore wrote of Konark: i here the language of stone surpasses the language of man /i .
After having visited the site, I now know what he meant. Words could never do it justice. The endless routine of life and ordinariness of driving there for hours was rewarded by the high drama and extra ordinariness of what must be one of the best human-made sites the world has to offer.
/p p Visit it once and you can know its grandeur, brilliance and splendor. Its poetry on stone. My tip visit the place between November and February, i.
e.
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