I <3 Firefox
June 13, 2008 | Filed Under life's answers | 2 Comments
One street that will never be unknown to me and yet have many undiscovered nooks is the www. And something that keeps me good company here is the Firefox browser.
There are very few things in this world that are free and yet so beautiful. The open source community aims at creating such things and Firefox is probably it’s best flagbearer.
I have come to love the browser and I don’t think I can use any other now. It has grown on me with time and it continues to make the browsing experience better. The other day I added a plugin called Zotero, which helped me to do a twitter post about the song I was listening on my PC.
Firefox 3 is being released on Tuesday and they aim to create a record for the highest downloaded software in a day. So if you love Firefox, do add to the tally. If you haven’t used it so far, it’s time you gave it a shot.
Harish & The Gang
February 28, 2008 | Filed Under Goa, Travel, beatles, bob dylan, life's answers | 7 Comments
Post dedicated to Sidd, my closest friend, and he who introduced me to Bob Dylan
And to the woman, who held my hand when the Beatles’ sang “I wanna hold your hand” (missed you guys)
On our first day in Goa, we visited the Stone House Cafe, in Candolim on the road to Taj Aguada. We were a gang of 11 and we thought the music was amazing. The food was good too as was the cocktail called rocket fuel. We ate and drank and went back to our respective rooms.
On third day, some of us had already left, we decided to go back to the place. It was the beginning of a night that I won’t forget forever. Pasqual - the crooner and the master guitarist - was sitting in his seat, playing his songs. We fortunately got a seat right in front of him. He acknowledged us, and dedicated the next song to Harish and his gang. Harish - spikey - the wall nut - had his face filled with happiness. And the song was “Wish you were here.” There have been few better starts in the history of the evenings I have lived. And all of us were remembering all the people we have loved and shared a bond with, particularly in relevance to music.
Then he sang “Light My Fire,” I had been mouthing the song all along in Goa. It was probably some kind of happy intuition. Pasqual was in my head. Choosing artists and songs that I have loved and adored since eternity.
When we started making requests like Dylan and Beatles, Reginaldo, a friendly British man came up to us like an excited 20 year old and asked us, how we knew all these songs. And then we went on to bond on artists like Leonard Cohen and Rolling Stones. Soon everyone was mouthing the classic rock platter that was served to us. Pasqual had become larger than life and even if he stopped singing, everyone around was singing. Chris the bartender joined Pasqual for American Pie. Chris the gracious man gave us a huge discount on our bill.
But the two songs, that rocked the most that evening were songs by the Beatles. The da-da-da-da…. part in Hey Jude was sung over and over tirelessly. The Stone House had ceased being a cafe and had become a Beatles concert, which is an almost impossible event to witness today.
As the night was coming to a close - Reginaldo dedicated ‘Paint it Black’ for the Bombay gang. Looking at Reginaldo gave me a strange feeling of traveling in time and seeing how I looked and was in the future.
When Pasqual played, ‘Smoke on the Water,’ I realized that the evening (or for that matter life) couldn’t get any better, and I was ready to die. And boy and me realized that if there was a moment of beautiful death, it was now.
But it got better, the evening was polished of with ‘Yellow Submarine.’ Which for me signifies Utopia….
As we live a life of ease
Every one of us, has all we need,
Sky of blue and sea of green,
in our yellow submarine.We all live in a yellow submarine,
yellow submarine, yellow submarine,
We all live in a yellow submarine,
yellow submarine, yellow submarine.
There weren’t people, whom I would take in the yellow submarine. But there were a few whom I would love to be with on the yellow submarine, you know who you are.
When I look at back, I realize that I am not there.
Post also dedicated to all who I promised to see the Yellow Submarine (movie) with but which hasn’t happened yet.
Namak Mirch Aur Lutf
February 15, 2008 | Filed Under Point of View, Theatre & Movies, life's answers | 1 Comment
I saw a play called Namak Mirch at Prithvi last night. It was delicious stuff. Light satire I would call it, something that makes you think about life and yet shows how it is really all funny.
Great performances by the cast, I hope the troupe keeps performing. A few shows more and the crew will grow in chemistry thereby making it a totally outstanding play.
Post play, when I had a few minutes to myself, I began to think…
If I had the chance to live life again. Will I want to change anything about it?
My father studied Urdu as a child, something that I never did. But Urdu is very similar to Hindi and I realized that with a little bit of effort I could understand it. And so began my relationship with the language. I would read Urdu ghazals and short stories and would love how they would sound to the ears. The language has a rhytm of its own and it really is the language of love. If someone shouts or abuses in Urdu, it’s as sweet as an “How do you do?” (The way the English say it, without any real concern or expectation of an answer.)
I realize all that the English language has given me and understand how it has provided for my living and comfort. I do love it too and yet when I look at people who perform in Urdu, and how they make it seem so extraordinary, I can’t help but feel a little jealous. I could have been them, you know.
You would say, “it’s never too late to start.” But frankly I know I am someone else, a happy someone else maybe. But I think it would be interesting to go back in time, take to the language more keenly so today I wouldn’t be the person in the audience clapping in glee, but rather one on the stage performing. And may be I could write a few things of my own, fight for daily bread, wallow in penury… sigh!
I guess the circle of life has caught up with me, I have loans to pay.