d e e p t ! (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} diffdrummer) wrote,@ 2007-08-02 00:23:00 |
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Yesterdays in Three Songs
Sunday afternoons with Shammi Kapoor, that was my Hindi class. I hated it when we were forced to learn Hindi in school by the virtue of it being the national language. None of our Hindi teachers were entertaining as Mr.Kapoor. His films, especially the songs where he traipsed with his leading ladies all sporting the same bouffant headgear and tight salwars were an integral part of our early childhood national language learning experience, the only part that I enjoyed. Later on in life I've come to realize the merits of Hindi - it is a very evocative yet simple language which speaks volumes, straight from the heart without the extra calories of heavy-weight tongue twisters, much like Spanish in that aspect. Here's a song from Teesri Manzil, one of my favorite sixties Bollywood movies, where Shammi Kapoor stars as quite a different drummer. Lyrics
Everyone has a movie they strongly suspect the script writer plagiarized from their own life when they were not watching, because it is so 'you'. How could someone write about your life with such inexplicable accuracy that is almost spooky(ok,only the first half of the movie.) The movie in question is Aranyakam, the heroine even has a book, a Hero pen and a camera slung on her neck(check out the song) - my default accessories during childhood. Don't blame me for suspecting the film-makers, children are often susceptible to illusions of grandeur. The song still 'knocks on the the doors of my soul' (well it is a lousy translation of it's first line) Your loss, if you don't know Malayalam.
Rainy days spent in a whole new world. The forbidden and the foreign unravels in rivulets falling from a higher ground. Reggae reminded me of ragas sung by Africans, earthy chants picked from around a primordial campfire. I had not heard reggae before that monsoon which became a flood and led to the temporary suspension of classes in schools and colleges. My first days at the Engineering college were washed in rain and tinted in blue like the cover of UB40 album, Promises and Lies. The tracks from this album, the first one I bought after I started college, included Higher Ground, C'est La Vie and Promises and Lies still transport me back to those days of teen spirit reeking of tomorrows and higher grounds, which we were yet to conquer. Ah, the hopes of the youth!
The song below is Higher Ground, from the same album where UB40 talks about, "Every hour every day 'am learning more, The more I learn the less I know 'bout before, The less I know, the more I want to look around, Digging deep for clues on Higher Ground". Enjoy.Lyrics
Sunday afternoons with Shammi Kapoor, that was my Hindi class. I hated it when we were forced to learn Hindi in school by the virtue of it being the national language. None of our Hindi teachers were entertaining as Mr.Kapoor. His films, especially the songs where he traipsed with his leading ladies all sporting the same bouffant headgear and tight salwars were an integral part of our early childhood national language learning experience, the only part that I enjoyed. Later on in life I've come to realize the merits of Hindi - it is a very evocative yet simple language which speaks volumes, straight from the heart without the extra calories of heavy-weight tongue twisters, much like Spanish in that aspect. Here's a song from Teesri Manzil, one of my favorite sixties Bollywood movies, where Shammi Kapoor stars as quite a different drummer.
Everyone has a movie they strongly suspect the script writer plagiarized from their own life when they were not watching, because it is so 'you'. How could someone write about your life with such inexplicable accuracy that is almost spooky(ok,only the first half of the movie.) The movie in question is Aranyakam, the heroine even has a book, a Hero pen and a camera slung on her neck(check out the song) - my default accessories during childhood. Don't blame me for suspecting the film-makers, children are often susceptible to illusions of grandeur. The song still 'knocks on the the doors of my soul' (well it is a lousy translation of it's first line) Your loss, if you don't know Malayalam.
Rainy days spent in a whole new world. The forbidden and the foreign unravels in rivulets falling from a higher ground. Reggae reminded me of ragas sung by Africans, earthy chants picked from around a primordial campfire. I had not heard reggae before that monsoon which became a flood and led to the temporary suspension of classes in schools and colleges. My first days at the Engineering college were washed in rain and tinted in blue like the cover of UB40 album, Promises and Lies. The tracks from this album, the first one I bought after I started college, included Higher Ground, C'est La Vie and Promises and Lies still transport me back to those days of teen spirit reeking of tomorrows and higher grounds, which we were yet to conquer. Ah, the hopes of the youth!
The song below is Higher Ground, from the same album where UB40 talks about, "Every hour every day 'am learning more, The more I learn the less I know 'bout before, The less I know, the more I want to look around, Digging deep for clues on Higher Ground". Enjoy.
