Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Maestro L Subramanyam makes me think....

This Morning I was listening to Dr. L Subramanyam play the violin and as I was listening to his soulful playing, a thought wandered into my mind. "Where have all the great musicians and great masters gone ?" TV doesn't talk about them except posthumously, "The Hindu" which I consider a great news daily doesn't talk much about musicians as they used to previously. In my child days, I used to scour the week's collection of the Hindu and collect articles on different topics and columns that were published. But not anymore. The columns are not as vivid. TV is much left alone, the more I talk about TV the more depressing it is. All you have now is "Serial" killers and just more "Serial" killers. At an age when I could not appreciate music much, TV was just one option : DD National and now with this plethora of channels, I wish we could get back those days. The spirit of Unity concerts of Madras Telugu Academy and Bharat Cultural Integration Committee are a boon to music lovers. Why a boon since the concerts do not discriminate on region, culture or any other such parameters. They have proved that art and music transgress borders and "mean" thinking. Forgot who said it, but the quote runs thus "There is no such thing as good or bad music, there is either music or there is noise". Well said. I am sure there are more people in this country and still more people in this globe who appreciate music for what it is and not from where it has originated. Why is it that Indian classical music has more appreciation from "Non-Indians"? Why is it that we have only the "Tyagaraja festival in Tiruvarur and the Bal Ghandharv Mahotsav in Pune? Why is it that a Shakira or a Iron Maiden has more promotion, sorry not just promotion but promotional blitzkriegs? Sure their music and songs and dance are great, but what I am ranting about and what I want to find out is have Indians lost touch with their roots? Have Indians no appreciation for their own music? Is "Indian Art" losing ground because of its own brethren? I have not the answer. I only have complaints. I wish I could be a TVK Shastry ?

This "wishy" thinking is making me ashamed. I just wish but do nothing about it.

The worser thing that is making me mad is so called artists loot the government by using the "artists exemption" from paying income tax, make tons of money; that too because fools like yours truly are foolhardy to buy their stuff and on top of it I have to pay income tax because I am salaried. Truly maddening.....

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Cricket, India and the world

I am not much of a fan leave alone being a cricket fan. But I could not help but notice the ire of Indians against the heroes we created albeit paper heroes. I do play some sport, but cricket is not my cup of tea or coffee. A lot of discussion went into "the viability of this team winning the cup" and a lot more discussion is going on as to what went wrong. Either case the demi-gods of Indian sports have become mere mortals with vandals going ahead and abusing families and breaking into houses, damaging property all because the gods are not coming home with the trophy. My question is "So what if are out of reckoning?", "so what if the paper heroes are mere mortals and have failed?". Indians as a bunch are responsible for this debacle as much as the team that went for the tourney. As far as I am concerned, what ails Indian cricket is Indians themselves. stop praying to the demi-gods that you have created, and if not full, atleast to a large extent the team would start playing cricket rather than adverts and albums. The "Times of India" - once upon a time a news daily I respected and now a paper I would wrap my tiffin box with shows photos of Zaheer khan driving his SUV and mentions his girlfriend in the caption. Can't you just leave them alone and treat them as people first and sportsmen second. I give a damn to who is Zaheer khan's girlfriend and give more to his bowling abilities. Wakeup ye brethren of India, wake up!!! Give the demi-gods you have created a chance to be people and sportsmen first.