routines interrupted.

This is how routine is broken..we walk our chosen path and life gets interrupted. Why should one get affected. What is the need to stop...to think...or to feel...one should just keep walking with blinkers on, till whenever, till wherever. But, yet there must be something that connects, fear for our own lives maybe? fear that it could happen to someone whose life is connected to ours. Or the need to know why do people kill others, why do they communicate by killing, why not any other way?

And yet the story goes on...

Is it that we have become immune to death, that now what matters only is the cause of death and numbers dead. death by a blast or a shoot-out or a natural calamity, accidental or natural.

Statistics apart, what is then left is perhaps just the vagueness of feeling! What can be helped, can be done, saving a person's life at a time of a crisis, but what of the worst kind of helplessness - in not being able to find answers. Why would someone do this? And what would it take for them to stop?

mobs, bombs and noises

Mumbai '10

And the chaos which is now makes its presence felt yet again - today...Pune...another blast...outside the popular German Bakery, the tourists' haunt,  - overall a more upmarket, urbane part of the city.

While Mumbai is currently taken over by a noisy evil- the moral brigade out to take their own law unto their own hands - this evil that is unseen, unheard and then suddenly makes its presence felt taking away lives is a recurrent event on television screens round the world by now.

In the past decade Indian television news has created its own vocabulary for reporting blasts and shootouts and the like.

Much noises in India currently. A film release. A mob at work. A blast. And the television commotion.....only if you are watching the news -- switch the channels and there is enough choice of "Amusing ourselves to death"...(refer Neil Postman :)

Right Now in Mumbai '10 …

Right Now in Mumbai '10 …

Even though I meant to write about events from 2001, how can I not react to the present, it is after all the present which compels me to write here and after quite a few days of thought, I am now compelled to interrupt the Melbourne journal with an incoherent rant!

“The times…” they change but who changes them if not people themselves, people change and with them their ‘times’; theatres of conflict may change but conflict itself remains continuous!

There’s always someone with an issue against someone else. Someone who wants the power of authority to Live and let die.

‘The world’ – if at all there exists a general term for the people of this planet – gives an impression that it’s getting together to talk, and when there is nothing specific to talk about, the point of conversation generally is … the Weather. The World discusses the ‘weather’ a lot these days! Coincidental?

A feeling of governments’ reaching out while the people they govern choose to huddle searching for comfort and ‘peace’.

And ‘Peace’ itself, ready for sale.

I am typing these words from Mumbai, the Indian city otherwise known for it’s cosmopolitan nature is proving to be just the contrary. Issues of ‘where are you from?’ abound. ‘outsiders’ threaten a certain section of self appointed moralists and cultural crusaders it seems!

Very simply put, their refrain, “this is ‘my’ home, go away!” Seems out of a kindergarten class fight? But add to it the possibility of violent reactions and weapons and there’s no comparison left with the innocence of the class-fight anymore, only a stage set for bloodied chaos.

Whether on this blog, I write of Srinagar, Melbourne or Mumbai, the conflicts might be different but stemming of a similar substance generated through a combination of insecurity, ignorance, intolerance and ‘hate’ of course.

Should this spirit of intolerance within ‘the world’ then be attributed towards the ‘times’. Intolerant, insecure, uncertain times? Times of fear? Times that seem to be racing against ‘time’ itself....

It should be back to the Melbourne journal after this, straight to an event that conveyed this feeling of insecurity, the need to huddle...

M15, The Sound of Music

M15 The Sound of Music

I could also title this the 'routine of reading' but that puts me off, so can't imagine what the reader would go through.

Mine is mostly a noisy country, alive, active, hyper active! There are spaces that are quiet too of course, for that one needs to travel, but mostly we live surrounded with sounds, voices, the radio or television shouting itself hoarse!

So, although looking out for silence was at first a challenge, the space of that room where all there is for communication is the page that needs to be read, was a bit painful to begin with.

So, i invested in a music player/radio set for company. More choice - too many frequencies - tuned to various styles of music - cotemporary, classical, talk based programs, the news - all available right there.

Music playing in the background can sometimes distract as well, the classical usually doesn't. Not a big fan of the western classical, I wondered what gives the music it's special status. But there's something about it that gives it great replay value, play it over and over again and after a point it blends into the surrounding itself. No wonder 'elevator music' takes a lot from here to blend into the surroundings - for elevators and malls et al. Of course our malls are noisy too.

Of course,Melbourne is a cultural city and there are musical performances, street side musicians as well.

But what I missed most was hindi film music, cannot help it, growing up on popular music that helps narrate film stories, preserves poetry and gives great company, and i'd say usually does a good job of it. So another reason for the radio spot was also to play along the collection of hindi film music and prod friends - mostly south asian to listen on.

To this i'd add, not everyone Indian who walks along with an iPod playing is showing off their iPod, they're trying to break the silence with the sound of music they are so familiar with. personal opinion. actually all of this blog is personal opinion.

...

Mumbai and thankful to music

In Mumbai finally I took all the time out I wanted to finally consume music and poetry that study time had never allowed me earlier.

I was thankful to music most because for 3 decades the internal I. t system was trying to indianise my face by force and they were still forcing all kinds of known unknown faces on my face while destroying and wasting my life and career that I sang instead to my hearts content songs that came from Pakistan or anywhere in the world so even with a destroyed face that was still being played with I found freedom with my voice. I wasnt singing to market singing skills or set up a music shop but it helped me breathe with the burden of other people's faces forced on mine for 3 decades.