New Kid on the Blog !

Its been a year since i wrote my first blog entry in livejournal, which incidently was my first attempt at blogging. I run four blogs now, and will probably contribute to a couple more blogs, but i still remain the infant i was a year back as far as blogging is concerned. As a writer( or a person who makes an attempt at writing...bleh!), me still clinging on to my brainchildren protectively, so hardly made any progress in this one year.My first entry remains one of my personal favourites, and here it is...

As I write this entry, I shred the last vestiges of trepidation. i finally overcome my inhibitions, without shame or remorse.Contrary to what the name of the blog would blatantly suggest( the name of the blog being "writers blog"), I am not much of a writer but if you probably decipher the pun, you'd figure out that I do have my sympathies for the someone who claims to be a writer.

I think Benjamin Franklin said something to the effect that an individual should always attempt to do something that'll get people to write about his endeavours, or write something about what he does. Well, I never really found this quote inspiring( which is self explanatory given the fact that I could'nt quote Franklin verbatim), though my years in Manipal (what I believe was my creative playground) taught me that the second half of Franklin's quote was the better half…err, more attainable.

Coming now to my engineering years, my exploits in Manipal are what legends are made of (note the sarcasm!). Till date the only test I've taken whose results bear an A+ is my blood test. Also the faculty of E&C in MIT Manipal are known to preserve my answer scripts for the sheer entertainment it provides them. So I am somehow convinced that my memoirs should make an interesting reading.

Sometimes, situations in life leave me at a complete loss for words. Adjectives, alliterations, exclamations, superlatives et al, all absconding me and leaving me vocally challenged. It would take a wizard to conjure a few words within my comprehension to facilitate the description of my thoughts but owing to my feeble powers of narrative, I’d still imagine the accounts of my experiences to be grossly inadequate in terms of closeness to reality. Given my shortcomings, I endeavour to entice the reader with experiences that totally changed my outlook towards life. If however, my entries turnout to be very sporadic, I implore the readers to decipher the pun in the name of the blog.

Welcome to my world !

Chura liya....

27th June 2007 happens to be the 68th birth anniversary of the late R.D Burman or Pancham da as he was affectionally called by his collegues and friends.The title for this entry shares it name with what remains my favourite Bollywood number. The title, however is also apt because of what I discovered a few months back. Today may not be the best day for an expose, it being his birth anniversary. What prompted me to post this entry today was this tribute in the newspaper.
When Bhumikak wrote "bringing world music to our ears through hindi films, words are'nt enough to describe what burman did", I interpreted it literally.I do realise that a statement like this would be nothing short of blasphamy. Afterall, Pancham da occupies a sacroscant space in the heart of every hindi-movie lover.I am not trying to question the talents of the maestro,I only doubt his creativity as a music composer. It turns out some of his best numbers were "inspired" from the works of artists whose background varied from the Americas to the far east.
I turned out to be a huge RD Burman fan after the release of what is now remembered as his swansong - "1942,A Love Story". It piqued my curiosity as it did for many who had had the better fortune of growing up to his melodious tunes in the 70's and in the following decades.I followed his works after his unfortunate demise in 1994 and was forced to listen to his works in the reverse order of chronology.His works were path breaking compared to all his contemporaries. But as I was exposed to western pop in my adolescent years, I realised Burman owed much to the likes of ABBA, Chubby Checker, Elvis, The Carpenters, The Beach Boys, The Beatles, Cliff Richards and Frank Sinatra to name a few. My own inclination towards jazz music more recently however led me to this serendipitous discovery, which really blew my mind away. Readers please check out Demis Roussos’ "Say you love me" and you'll know what I mean.Roussos' third album, released in 1974, inspired Sholay's "Mehbooba Mehbooba", which was released the following year. Till I discovered this fact, I'd listed down this song as my favourite bollywood track as it was so ahead of its times. I'd imagined that it as a song inspired many a musician to explore new realms of creativity. Suddenly I felt a little betrayed.
Now as I look at it dispassionately and objectively, it did probably spawn a breed of pseudos with great musical tastes to try out a hand at composing music.Afterall, We must remember "Akele Hum Akele Tum", Anu Malik's magnum opus till then as probably bollywoods best tribute to Wham,Deep Purple and the Godfather. Burman however should be remembered as an individual who revolutionised the Indian music industry by his sheer talents.By featuring in Jose Flores' Pantera, he did put India on the world music map. Creativity or the lack of it notwithstanding, I'd still list down the folling as my favourites:
1. Monica, oh my darling (caravan)
2. Hare Krishna Hare Ram ( movie of the same name)
3. Chingari koi badkhe ( amar prem)
4. Kati patang ( movie of the same name)
5. Chura liya ( yaadon ki baarat)
6. Tere bina zindagi se koi ( andhi)
7. Tumse naraz nahi ( masoom)
If any of these have been "inspired", i'd just overlook any such info and say "Ignorance is bliss".