Ethereal music

I salute those musicians who create compositions that have the power to change the listeners mood, concentration, & sometimes even pace. I am listening to some such hindi music from newer movies. Am pleased to observe that recent Hindi music has a higher rate of beautiful compositions compared to the sad state of the last couple of decades. We have some good composers these days - ARR, SEL, Vishal Shekhar & the rest are upping the standards of the whole hindi music industry. We have some good singers as well - Sonu Nigam, Kailash Kher, Shaan, Sunidhi, Shreya consistenly sing beautifully & infuse their own life into their songs.

My current song list which is playing in a loop (super conducive for working while listening to):
1. Ajab Si - Om shanti om
2. Tum se hi - Jab we met
3. Saawariya - Sawariya
4. Tere sawalon ke - Manorama 6 feet under














*pic added much much later, songs list still remains much the same

हिन्दी में बातचीत

सोचती हूँ, कुछ हिन्दी में लिखा जाए - इसी बहाने अपनी हिन्दी भी revise हो जायेगी। मेरी हिन्दी कई साल से न उपयोग करने के कारण कमज़ोर हो गयी है। इसीलिए उर्दू के शब्दों का भी इस्तेमाल कर रही हूँ। हिंगलिश का भी प्रयोग करना पढ़ रहा है। हिन्दी के महारथियों, कृपया गलतियाँ माफ़ करें, आपकी टिप्पणियों का स्वागत है। :)

On Art

I often think about art & its impact - both on the artist & the world. Creative expression is a great source of joy to its originator. It moves the artist from the realm of contemplation to action. It gives a sense of accomplishment to have given birth to a new idea - a new painting, a musical composition, an article, a book, a choreography, a building, a photograph & so on.

Are you an artist? What impact does creating art have on you? Post your comments here.

And what joy & connection it brings to the audience, the spectators - the patrons! We only need to spend a moment to recall the impact that listening to a Mozart symphony, viewing a Monet painting, seeing the Taj Mahal, or experiencing a finely executed theater act has on us. In me, art evokes a range of emotions from inspiration, empathy, sympathy, admiration, amazement. Art has that power. It can transport us to the world of the artist.

What impact does experiencing art have on you? Post your comments here.

In my town, a mall comes alive with marching bands & carolers every evening during the Christmas season - invariably the quartets of carolers receive smiles & applauses, no matter how small the audience. Every evening, art transforms a commercial outfit to cultural.

In almost all religious & spiritual movements I have observed, music brings the hymns to the masses. The creation of art is such a personal process, yet it brings people & communities together - it unites.

Not just a medium for expressing the positive, art has been used all over the world by teens & the troubled to express their angst. You can see that such art also has a huge following from people who can connect to the thoughts behind the art, though I doubt if such art has the power to elevate. Even so, such art must be a cathartic process for the artist - getting the angst out of themselves & into the medium of their creation.

Not only does art activate unexercised neurons in the depths of our human brains, but it also elevates us to a higher level of spirituality - even if momentarily. It makes us wonder at the immense depth of creative potential in each of us, & the source of it all.

God created wonderful art on & around our planet Earth - voluminous waterfalls, amazing sunrises & sunsets, the beautiful colours of birds, flowers, animals, the lush greens of meadows & forests, intense blues of lakes & seas, interspersed with polychrome soils & sands. The high mountains, hiding behind whiffs of cotton candy clouds, hiding the vast blue sky. The beautiful sounds of the winds, the oceans, the rivulets, the birds & the insects. The musical beats of thunder. The beauty of the human, animal & plant forms. And He put a little bit of that Artist in each of us - for us to capture the art of Nature & create our own impressions of it!

Species extinction: happening inside our bodies?

I was reading this newsweek article about bugs in our gut, & how every person has different amount of helpful organisms in our bodies. I wondered if just the way industrialization & the use of chemicals is causing entire species to become extinct - perhaps the new chemicals in foods, trace amounts of pesticides, heavy metals etc are causing the eco-system inside our bodies to change, & perhaps some of the friendly organisms arent able to thrive.. Perhaps that is one of the causes of increased disease in the world?

Update: Found an older article in Newsweek that talks about pretty much the same (albeit from a medical angle). Very interesting. I've often wondered how come people in developing countries are much more healthy than those in first world countries, despite the lack of proper sanitation / attention to hygeine. This article gives some basis to my hunch.

Crazy short stories

There are numerous of them in my head - half lost to sleep, half hung in memory. Some say they are a foreboding of things to come, some say they are the creative muse talking, others say they prepare us to deal with real situations that might need preparing for. I just think its my imagination running wild - people places situations morph all the time into something entirely unrelated or out of context. Sometimes I think I could make a successful movie out of them.. maybe some day I will!

I am Empowered

I found that action is more powerful than contemplation.
I found that positive visioning is much more powerful than wishing.
I found that when I take a decision, I feel happier with myself than if I had just let things happen.