Memories of a Perfect Evening

It is 8:10 a.m. - just woke up, it is dark outside, its a weekday and I have to go to work in about half an hour! I looked at the wall clock again and then picked up the mobile phone to reconfirm the time - why is it dark outside? I am in Delhi not Antarctica!! (but I so wish I was) Peeped outside through white translucent curtains: dark clouds crowding the sky, will it rain heavily again?



Last Friday it poured cats and dogs for about 5 hours in the morning, just when people had to leave home for work and threw the traffic out of gear for several hours. There was so much rain that day that I almost forgot I live in a low Monsoon rainfall zone. (see http://www.ndtv.com/video/player/news/heavy-rain-lashes-delhi-office-goers-stranded/210254)

I have to go about my morning chores, otherwise I'll be late for work.... but remember the day this Blog went live? It was raining that day too - I posted a photo of rains then. I will not repeat a photo of that kind. However I'll post photos from an evening in Lodhi Garden: it was in July this year, I was walking about the charming park and practicing my photography skills. Though Monsoons had already begun, the weather that evening was perfect - there are only few such days in Delhi! Why am I posting this today? Because I am pining for an evening like that! Enjoy!!

A piece of my day, a slice of nature

Photos Copyright: Sanchita C

The Night of the Mystics

Sorting out a year's stash of videos from the hard disk of the vidcam, I chanced upon these recordings from a December (2010) evening that was fading from memory. The occasion was the release of a book (Sailing on the Sea of Love: The Music of the Bauls of Bengal by Charles Capwell, Seagull Books) followed by presentations and an hour and half of fakiri and baul songs at the Town Hall, Calcutta. It had been a terrible week of missed deadlines and avoidable misunderstandings at office and luckily our good friend Ad (one of the organisers) had given me a pass. `Baul music is like medicine’ Ad had said and really one needed no convincing for I had long been fascinated by the music of the mystic minstrels of Bengal.

The first clip shows the performance of Golam Fakir of Murshidabad. His song is about music uniting all religions. The baul with ektara in the video below is Biswanath Das singing - `Ami jar jonye pagol, tarey pelam koi?’ in his inimitable moody style.

Tomes have been written about the syncretism of bauls and fakirs and the crowds at baul melas often outnumber audiences of rock concerts. The tenets of Dehatatya, which is the scaffolding on which the baul way of life is built, finds echoes in Tantra and other teachings at the margins of mainstream religions. In a time when there is a sharpening of the rhetoric of radicals, when the thunder of hardliners pierces our ears and our souls, the philosophy of these smiling mystics who make a sweet music with their duggis and ektaras comes like welcome rain after a parched summer's day.     

I drank deep and as my friend had promised -- like magic potion it did work!

Joy guru! 

Copyright: Videos, images and text copyright: RajatC, Full-length edited videos will be uploaded on Youtube soon.

(k)night animals

In any big city, one species of creatures is always available. The ones who stay up in the night and sleep in the day.



Obviously I am not talking about bats of any form (this is not a wildlife blog but I may start one any time!). The ones I am referring to roam around the streets in their (often funky and expensive) cars (sometimes they walk but not in the city I live in) and fashionable clothes (often you will spot someone like me in there: dressed like a vagabond), and frequent (some times jump from one to another) nightclubs and bars throughout a night (or at least till night time joints are not closed).

They drink like fish, eat like pigs and dance like mad. They have the money to splurge, willingness to go out every time an occasion arises and energy to continue this routine night after night.




In rare cases some some such creatures turn out to be vultures - they pounce on opposite (or perhaps also same) members of gender whenever one such victim look available or lost. On the positive side, there is possibility of meeting a shining knight (or a gracious lady) among these night creatures.

Of course you may also find a lost soul hidden in such a crowd, trying to mend a broken heart or forget a troublesome life.




Traditional societies condemn this kind of life but growing urbanisation and consumerism have simply ensured that more and more young people are brought into the fold of urban night life.

Yet these creatures and such lifestyle make urban life look interesting and attractive. After all we all like to let our hair down once in a while and let go when things weigh us down. And what's the harm - as long as things go back to normal the next day, the night out was just another of many activities we indulged in!

Tagore at the Traffic Light

Rabindranath Tagore

There is a song on every lip. Well not quite, but if you are lucky to be in Calcutta this time of the year you can hear songs playing at every street corner, at traffic lights to be precise. While this is a smart way to celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath the added decibels at the traffic crossings have begun to prick some eardrums and bump up readings of the crib-o-meter. 

It's not difficult to empathise with the streetside tea shop guy who has to brave endless repeats of a bunch of songs from the Nobel laureate poet's formidable repertoire of more than 2500 -- even the sweetest ballad can be done to death by repetition or a crappy music player going at full blast -- yet on the balance this is a welcome break from the cacophony of the streets. 

A Tagore poster at Mission Row, Calcutta

To those who say that the songs only add to the cacophony, sorry we don't agree. To an arch-romantic like this blogger, and I am sure, to millions of kobita-crazy fellow Kolkatans, the songs of the bard are more balm than bruise when navigating the raucous streets of this city. 

We do feel for the hapless cha-wallah but in a democracy it's numbers that speak and the good of the many will always steal a march over the grief of a few. 

Ludwig van Beethoven

Before Tagore took over the `traffic-music' scene, pedestrians in Calcutta were greeted with a virtuoso burst of Beethoven (Fur Elise) at street crossings, each time the lights changed. Yet it did not ruffle feathers or set on fire newspaper column-centimeters. There is sure a lesson to be learnt there: Let the music play but also grant us breaks from hour to hour and please don't pump up the volume to maximum. It's much more pleasant that way. As for those who would still hold a grudge, we advise them to keep a safe distance from tuneful traffic lights. 
... and quietly on their iPods play:

`Kolahol to baron holo, Ebar kotha kaane kaane

ekhon hobe praner alap, kebolmatro gaane gaane ... '

as many times as their hearts desire.

Copyright notice: Tagore black and white image is from Wikipedia at this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tagore3.jpg (Creative Commons)

Beethoven color image is from wikipedia here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Beethoven.jpg (Creative Commons)

Other images in this post are copyright RajatC 

Buildings, buildings

Connaught Place, Delhi

One of many buildings in Bangalore with colonial-type architecture

One thing I like to do when I am traveling and driving through to a city is to take photos of city buildings. So if you are lucky, you may be able to spot me some time sitting in a taxi and clicking away happily (!). What attract me mainly are old and historical buildings but honestly I like to capture any striking building.

Falling apart, a building in Kolkata

I feel sad that many old buildings are suffering badly from lack of repair and maintenance. Some of these will need to be torn down as they are already in pretty bad condition. In fact many old buildings (some really old, of historical importance) in Indian cities have been torn down.

Another one from Kolkata

Even now, buildings which are not formally recognised as of historical or archeological importance are being ‘put down’ and replaced by residential of commercial complexes. I am sentimental about these things.

From 25 years old buildings to 1000s years old structures - all are in danger of being brought down. The house I used to live in Safdarjung Enclave, Delhi until 5 months ago has been torn down and being replaced by a sparkling new apartment building.

A Kolkata building

My own family home – in the outskirts of Kolkata – has a very old foundation: 70-80 or perhaps 100 years old, though portions have been added over the years. I hope I manage to keep it because the temptation to ‘give’ it to a builder and move to a low-maintenance and compact apartment is very strong.

My family home

These are a few photos of buildings I have clicked during my journeys.

A building from Lutyen's Delhi

Old but with a fresh coat of paint, Kolkata

Part of a huge building on Park Street, Kolkata

a Church in Bangalore