Walk of Life..

It’s the same old pair of shoes; with a slight pick swoosh in the blue body. They have lasted longer than their brethren, been the most accommodating, never biting on the edges, never selectively abusing the right foot, never giving you the urge to peel them away just to let the feet stretch and breathe for a while. They just ‘sit’ perfectly and ‘walk’..

However yesterday was a strange ‘shoe day’, I must have tied my shoe lace almost 10 times in the course of the day. The morning was particularly awful, with a muffled yawn I would bend down to tie the knot only to find it come undone in another short while.
Evening was just the same, I finished one lap of the harbor front and before I could embark on the second lap, the shoe lace had come undone again. With racing breath; feeling the throbbing of the blood against my temples, I bent down to tie the shoe lace again, a little more tightly this time around.

The ‘butterfly effect’ is a beautiful metaphor in the echelons of chaos theory; at least I am a firm believer. Small, seemingly unrelated things sometimes are a pre-cursor of the things to follow. If this theory seems too abstruse, try to look at the daily rhythm of your life, focus on the seemingly unconscious things. You will probably realize that a shoe lace that comes undone every few minutes in the course of a day is not really about the shoe..

Interestingly there is a ‘Walk of Life Project’, a cinematic endeavor to prove the hypothesis that “Walk of Life” by Dire Straits is the perfect song to end any movie.
https://laughingsquid.com/how-the-dire-straits-song-walk-of-life-provides-a-perfect-ending-soundtrack-to-any-film-of-any-genre/

I’ll just use it to end the blog and rest my case...

Optimist about it..

I drove along as Bastille-Pompei song played along. Its not a very remarkable song but catchy in its own way. Some songs have this quality that a single line or the chorus just stays with you through the day and even for days for no apparent reason.. how many times we just exclaim that 'this song is stuck in my head', well it happens with me quite often.

So I found myself suddenly humming these two lines from the song to myself almost unconsciously..
'I'm gonna be an optimist about this../I'm gonna be an optimist about this...'
The correct lines happen to be:
How am I gonna be an optimist about this? How am I gonna be an optimist about this?
Well you hear what you to want to hear!

I was running around my usual route and then I saw this tree in complete purple-pink blossoms. I thought of the tree just outside my window, I have been noticing small shoots, sprouts, buds for few days but I am still awaiting the dreary winter cloak to disappear completely. Its getting there...I'm just gonna be an optimist about it.. I caught myself singing the 'improvised' lyrics..

 When you go swimming, somehow the person on the adjacent lane seems to be faster than you, more graceful that you, stronger than you.. when you are catching your breath he/she is completing laps effortlessly. Again it could only be my experience and not hold true for good swimmers out there in the pool, but I like to think that I am getting closer to being faster than some adjacent folks..I'm just gonna be an optimist about it.. 

The dreariness of winter is a real thing, Self doubt is a real thing, but a dose of unreal optimism sometimes helps..'So I'm gonna be an optimist about this../so I'm gonna be an optimist about this...'

A week of Music

Music followed me or conversely I followed music but in the end all I can say is that it was a week full of music.
Perhaps this week was a saving grace for the month of April, for I had waited long enough for something to come along that I could blog about. I am writing this blog in the midst of a loud Mandarin conversation in my apartment, and even with my most conscientious effort to continue with my writing, I cannot string together a proper sentence-so much for the optimism to find music in a loud Chinese conversation.
Ahh..the sweet sound of silence, music to my ears!

The week started with a trip to Memphis, the city which traces its musical roots in a combination of country, blues, jazz, and rock and roll. The Memphis airport flaunts this musical history, but I was unaffected. I was more occupied to find the booth of the yellow checkered taxi which would take me to my hotel. It was at the hotel lobby waiting for the escalator that I clearly heard the strains of a familiar song from the good old days of rock and roll. I am cursing myself for not remembering the songs, but every-time I took the escalator I would smile inwardly at the song playing.
Monday evening, when I was finally done with my long interview process, my friend took me out to explore the city. From this point on-wards, I can assure that I have a better recollection of the songs that surfaced through the week! It was 'Purple Rain' and 'All Summer Long' as a live band performed on the Beale Street.
Beale Street is a significant location in the city's history, as well as in the history of the blues. It runs from the Mississippi River to East Street, a distance of approximately 2.9 km. and is lined with blues clubs and restaurants. During the first weekend of May (sometimes including late April), the Beale Street Music Festival brings major music acts from a variety of musical genres, the festival is the kickoff event of a month of festivities citywide known as Memphis in May.(source Wikipedia)

It was a street where all days of the week came to experience a Sunday and people just played along holidaying, singing, dancing eating and drinking with no cares for tomorrow! But the years rang loud and clear in the voice of this old shriveled man who was performing for the crowd. The street had seen it all, his act over the years, people swaying in the rises and ebbs of his voice, cheering as if in a spell when nothing else matters but music..

Driving back along the Nashville highway, my friend played her CD of country music and we were humming along Johnny Cash as he 'Walked the line',  talked of a 'Boy named Sue', felt the 'Hurt' of 'Folsom prison blues'. The next best thing after music will have to be food, and even mediocre Indian food in a foreign land with Jagjit Singh playing can be a treat. The day ended in the strains of her collection of Hindi songs and a bottle of wine. Good times!

Next day I flew back to Chicago, and music found me again or i found it -a bright blue guitar at the train station. Two guys headed to New Orleans started singing South American songs(Spanish/Portuguese, i wouldn't know), the music was sure making people tap their feet and occasionally break into impromptu dance faces! The next moment an Amish traveler joined the ranks of the travelling vagabonds and while his wife sheepishly smiled at him, he sang 'Joy to the world, the Lord is come'.
Well the train did come, and it was called 'City of New Orleans', so no surprise if they play the song 'City of New Orleans' as passengers board the train.

All these musical adventures span Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday night S calls up to ask if i would like to go for Bob Dylan concert the next day. Hell yes! I bought the tickets for Bob Dylan concert on Wednesday and Thursday was again musical with Mr. D performing.
The crowd had a generous mix of 40 year old, undergrads and we-the middle ground. S clearly shares no love for the middle ground, always ready to jump boat onto the younger side-but only if he could!
A new band named Dawes opened the show for Dylan, it was a decent band- 'A little bit of everything'

Then the legend took to the stage, and the next two hours it was him performing live!
He is undoubtedly the most influential person in the musical scene. There is so much already written about him, his life, his musical style that I have no fresh insights to offer. Sitting in the auditorium hearing him perform, it felt like a story telling session where some wise old man, who has seen life up close and personal (The more I die the more I live) was just talking about it in beautiful verses, deep voice and occasionally taking the help of the mouth organ that he picked up sometime in his youth.
'Tangled in blue', 'All along the watchtower', 'What good am I', 'Summer days' ..

On a personal note, the week ended with the sweet sound of success, and now I will have to wait and watch where this music takes me from here..

A little sun...

In the last few days there were two small motions that I noticed around me that triggered a chain of thoughts in my damp head.

The chill is slowly trying to sneak in and how I hate the lousy companion it has chosen-the dim witted fog and the half-hearted rain. The depressing fog greets you every morning and the constant drizzle tests your patience through the day. This sloppy weather is making me miserably miss the sunshine, so much so that I sense a certain dull humidity in my own head. I hear myself singing,

Give me some sunshine, Give me no rain..

Give me another chance, I wanna love the weather again!!

Before I ramble more about the weather, I will come back to the initial purpose of the blog and talk of the two motions.

1) The digital clock on my mobile going from 9:30 pm to 8:30 pm as I just crossed over from EST to CST.  We were driving back from Indianapolis to Champaign and since I don't drive, my job was to extend moral support to the person behind the wheel and keep her company with an entertaining but not too distracting conversation. I would have so wanted to shut up and snore peacefully but I was duty bound. Since I was so awake I glanced at my mobile and saw the digits change in front of my eyes. To lose time on my way up and then gain it on my way back is no bargain but still to get an hour at 9:30 pm, made me suddenly more awake!

2) I sat by my window watching the light drizzle outside with not much of an appreciative look. There were clear signs of the onset of winter, the changing season. As I registered all the changes around I noticed the rain drops landing on the sun dried leaves, the leaves getting detached and fall freely to the ground. For me the movement of the falling leaves was a beautiful personification of Tom Petty song Free Fallin'..

And I'm free, free fallin'

Yeah I'm free, free fallin'..

I guess both these triggers were significant, they made me conscious of time and change. Perhaps the two most powerful things in our life's. Its really a cathartic experience to look at life sometimes and think how time has ushered in so much change in us. All the 'what if's' that come to mind, wondering what life would have been if time took you back or forward in life. All the people and places come to mind and I just smiled for everything that has come my way and brace myself for the winter that is inching closer with each passing day.

However all I ask for is a little reassuring sun somewhere in the sky above! I have no answers for this solar fixation but I blame my pahari genes... :) Or may be the sun is just symbolic of a constant that I like to have in my life when everything around keeps changing with each passing hour..

Barfi Inspired

Abhi rookna nahi hai manzoor dil ko kya keeje..

raas na aaye dimag ke sujhav dil ko..kya keeje..

karte hai hum har baat kabool dil ki kya keeje..

shayad isliye yeh raah baaki hai..

shayad isliye yeh intezaar baaki hai..


Mausam badla hai dil ki basti mein kya keeje,
jaante hain kyun par keh na paayein wajah kya keeje,
dil, dil hamesha se hi tha masoom kya keeje,
aaj samjhe hai dhadhkan kahan gayi hai gum
shayad isiliye yeh ikraar baaki hai...
shayad isiliye yeh intezaar baaki hai...

Epilogue: Thank you Shivani for writing the second stanza of the poem :)  Loved the song from Barfi so much, that had it running in loop through the day, and the song inspired the first stanza. And the poem will be incomplete without the following dedications :)

sache aur ache dost dil ki baat samjhte hai.. aur shabdo ke jaadugar hote hai..

sache aur ache dost dil ki baat samjhte hai.. aur tasveer main badal dete hai. 

sache aur ache dost dil ki baat samjhte hai.. aur ache gaane sabse pehle share karte hai..
sache aur ache dost blog padh ke dil ki baat samjh jate  hai..
sache aur ache dost bus aise hi hote hai kya keeje..

photo credit : sr

poem co-credit: ss

song introduction:vs

Time of your life..

Today was the start of possibly the last year of my formal education. I don't know whether it was this overarching thought, or the effort of sitting in different classes to still figure out what classes I wanted to take or the nagging thought that the 'what-where next in life' question will stare back stronger with each passing day that made me slightly less at ease. I could sense a certain pressure in the air..
Once in a while you live through one such days, when you feel a little overwhelmed and insecure (at least I do). And this is what I do- I go about life doing the things that I am suppose to do while keeping a ear out for 'my song'. I don't dig into my song collection and try to decide which song would help me sail through the day, I simply tune into a radio station in the hope that something will come right by my alley. I have this weird theory that if randomly I come across the song that sounds just right then there is someone playing out music just for me. And yes there is someone who is watching out for me. Physiologically speaking my decision to not put the effort to search for the song and instead wait for it to play places me in a category of people who cannot claim to be truly action or result oriented. However I cannot feign happiness to prove or qualify as someone else..
I let myself be content with the sudden wind fall of a good song that played out just for me..
So today Pandora genome project picked up the following song for me as I sat down to figure out my classes, my resume, my winter travel plans..And I knew that this was 'my song'

"Another turning point a fork stuck in the road 

Time grabs you by the wrist directs you where to go 
So make the best of this test and don't ask why 
It's not a question but a lesson learned in time 

[Chorus]
It's something unpredictable but in the end 
It's right I hope you've had the time of your life 

So take the photographs and still frames in your mind 
Hang it on a shelf in good health and good time 
Tattoos and memories and dead skin on trial 
For what it's worth it was worth all the while.."

I guess this will be the theme song for the year that starts today...

Old Friends

"Old Friends 
Old Friends 
Sat on their park bench like bookends 
Newspaper blowin' through the grass 
Falls on the round toes 
Of the high shoes 
Of the old friends 

Old Friends 
Winter companions the old men 
Lost in thier overcoats 
Waiting for the sunset 
The sounds of the city sifting through trees 
Settle like dust 
On the shoulders of the old friends 

Can you imagine us years from today 
Sharing a park bench quietly? 
How terribly strange to be seventy... 

Old Friends 
Memory brushes the same years 
Silently sharing the same fear 

A time it was 
It was a time 
A time of innocence 
A time of confidences 

Long ago it must be 
I have a photograph 
Preserve your memories 
They're all that's left of you"- Simon Garfunkel

photo credit:sr

Summertime Blues..

I googled an article on marketing automation.. and this is what I find, perfect echo of Monday blues accentuated with Summertime blues.. Oh google thou art a mind reader!

I'm gonna raise a fuss,
I'm gonna raise a holler
About a work'in'all summer
just to earn a Dollar...


Every time I call my baby
And try to get a date..
My boss says,
'No dice son', you gotta work late'..


Sometime I wonder
what I'm gonna do..
But there aren't no cure
for the summertime blues...


Eddie Cochran

NET-(act...INact)-ivity …

I accept that this word coinage may not be obvious to some people in the first glance but I hope to make it clear by the last word of the blog. However if I fail then try your luck to google and see(subtle hint!)

A lot of things have changed in the recent past. I am un-employed, having resigned from my job(clarification not thrown out for my activity/inactivity).I am peacefully at home and not sharing my space in a rented apartment. However the peace is not the utopian ‘comfortably-numb’ state because it is the preparation phase for the next lap which is a total stranger. Not delving much into deeper stranger stuff. I am going to write about the one change that makes me fret most often and gives my mom fresh ammunition to charge at an entire generation plagued with the ills of living away from home.

The simple act of connecting to the internet has turned into an infinite wait. After a patient/impatient ‘lucky’ wait I manage to get connected, only to find my connection crawling at 15kbps,20kbps and back to 0 kbps. I can always walk up to the AC cyber café near my home, however that makes internet too labour intensive when just a few days back it was so readily and speedily available at a click’s notice. Well I am still scouting for ways to bring my internet woes to end but that is not the point of this blog.

The point (my mother’s point) is- what makes me so restless? For any immediate need the cyber café is just a small walk away so why all the fuss. It turns out all my needs are immediate, for all the questions that keep coming to my head I need immediate answers. Then to aggravate matters I have developed a compulsive random surfing/downloading habit. Most often I scout for songs primarily English bands. Perhaps for me the initiation was a little late. It coincided with my younger brother’s guitar learning quest.

I trace a band and plough the net for all its relevant history geography. All I need is a cue to the band, may be a mention by someone or a shared audio/video link on Facebook. I might notice the song of the band feature in some movie or popular TV sops. Now this is an elaborate process, you listen to the song, watch it on YouTube, read the lyrics and further read the reviews of the song. This part is completely net dependent and I’m completely paralyzed with my awesome net connection. The next discussion phase with my kid brother is pretty easy these days. However all I can discuss sitting right across the room is about the awful speed and wasted effort. Thus not finding anything new to explore I thought of writing about songs that are a real treasure for me.

My most recent discovery is the band, The National. It is a pretty much quaint band (judging by the fact that I have encountered it just a few days back.) The baritone of the lead singer and the musical arrangement really got me hooked. One of my favorites is also the first song that I heard of this band-Slow show. Interestingly in their songs, the lyrics have certain lines that just cling to you. There is a vivid visual imagination that goes with the song, sample the following lyrics with the instrumentation.

You know I dreamed about you
For twenty-nine years before I saw you
You know I dreamed about you
I missed you for
For twenty-nine years—Slow show, The National

I’ll not quote further from this song, because I’ll end up pasting the entire lyrics. Then there is the deeply melancholic, About today. The last lines as he croons and the song slowly fades..

How close am I to losing you
How close am I to losing—About today, The National

We're half awake in a fake empire
We're half awake in a fake empire—Fake empire, The National

I know you're a serious lady.
Living off a teacup full of cherries.
Nobody knows where you are living.
Nobody knows where you are.—So far around the bend, The National

How can anybody know
How they got to be this way--Daughters of the Soho riots, the National

The other songs that I downloaded of the band and am now listening with the backdrop of pitter patter rain drops are: ‘Mistaken for strangers’,’ Racing like a pro’, ’Afraid of everyone’,’ Apartment story’. I just realized that all these songs are beautifully melancholic although not quite upbeat. I have lots in my repertoire for all moods but for today this is the flavor.

Coming back to the NET-(act...INact)-ivity, let me try my luck if I can post this blog in the next 15minutes and gladly sigh a breath of relief.