Grass

Holding the earth in its place !

Grass's is the forgiveness of nature.
Her constant benediction.
Trees may be fell and flowers plucked.
But it is through these strands, that she speaks to us !!!
- On a signboard in a park, as seen by a friend.

[Photo caption idea - G, a colleague]

A disturbing trend

Every time, a friend climbs one more step on the ladder of "success", I feel I am drawn ten steps away from him/her. No no, it has got nothing to do with his behavioral changes. Rather, its more due to my reaction towards that success. I am not even sure if its my own insecurities manifesting themselves as jealousy. But I am scared that, most of the times, that is verily the case. And the people I am taking about here, are those, whom I consider to be an "extension" of my own self. Those, to whom, I feel "connected" at a finer level. Which, makes it all the more disturbing. This trend, I know, is so very wrong.

And why am I being so candid about it, here ? That's because I want them to know. I want them to know of my true feelings. Though it does little good in totally eliminating, it does help to some extent, in alleviating the guilt factor. And to add to the hopelessness, I am not even sure on how to reverse this disturbing trend. All I can say as of now, is that I am truly sorry.

To end the post on a slightly better note, I've been listening to this song by Pandit [Rajan and Sajan Mishra], the whole of today. And it is undoubtedly, one of the beautiful, beautiful, prayer compositions I've ever heard. So much, that I went to a durga temple after office :).
(Select "Raaga Durga" among the list of songs).

An advice...

Your unprecedented silence could become your biggest weapon.
At the same time, it could also turn out to be the biggest cause of your destruction.

[ update: This post was not my contribution. The originator is unaware of this blog, and I conveniently "forgot" to credit him for the same, at the time of posting this :) ]

Do you know ?

Every decision that you make in life, every step that you take, do you know for sure, whether you are moving forward or going backward ?
How did you decide your reference ?
And then again, wasn't that reference biased by any another reference ?

Or even worse, do all those decisions and choices, ultimately end up only as, being a part of a strange loop ?
I do not know.

Then, why ask these questions in the first place ?
I do not know that, as well.

Revelation

Last week, saw the revival of my affinity towards Hindustani music. For reasons unknown, the interest in the same had gradually waned, after college. But then, S, a new found friend at office, showed keen interest in it and so, I got a few songs from her collection. From then on, I've been listening to some real gems, and was only cursing myself for having neglected this form of music totally. And now, I just don't enjoy the conventional "popular" songs anymore. They all seem so hollow in comparison to the divine abstraction that Hindustani offers. It has elevated me as a music listener, to another level by itself.

Sample some of these melodies that I've been captivated with, for the last few days.

1. Hariprasad Chaurasia -Raag Hansdhwani : A beautiful rendition of vatapi.. followed by an awesome jugalbandi between tabla and flute towards the end.
2. Naarayani-Jasraj
3. Malhaar-Jasraj
4. Sanjoy_Bandopadhyay- Husseini Kanada (Sitar)
5. Sanjoy_Bandopadhyay-Anandi-Kalyan
6. Sanjoy_Bandopadhyay-Kafi_Thumri
7. Sanjoy_Bandopadhyay-Sohini
8. Jayateerth_Mevundi-Raga_Kedar...

Add to that, a lot of other semi-classical fusion songs which were enthralling to say. Now, if you are thinking that I could distinguish between all those ragas mentioned here, you are mistaken. I could know what they are, only because they were explicit in the file-names of the songs themselves :-). That, is another regret that I have. My ear not being "intelligent" enough to discern the various ragas and talas. I probably will relish the music more, if I can do that.

Next step would be, to add to the list of songs. And I know where exactly to do that !