My review of Iqbal

See it Here

My Hate-List

I was tagged to do this by Alexis, who is my real life hero.

But preparing this list mentally was hard work and required a lot of internal churning. Also, I am a little scared to put up this list after seeing the response Alexis got for his.

This is not a Hate-List in the strictest sense of the term, as it includes things, which can be in ‘Do Not Like’ to ‘Utterly Despise’ categories.

muhabbat me.n nahii.n hai farq jiine aur marane kaa
usii ko dekh kar jiite hai.n jis kaafir pe dam nikale

Ghalib

A loose translation of this Urdu couplet may mean “In Love there is not much difference between life and death; you live by the sight of the person who is worth dying for.”

I feel the same for Hate. You have to live with the things/qualities you hate, which makes life worthwhile. And, I am not sure if I may start to admire any of these things/qualities in future or in a specific person. This is a list in passing.

01. Strand of long hair any place other than the head (specifically in food).

02. Lethargy (in me. Being physically a very lazy person I feel that I could have gained a lot more from life if I could keep my body active as my brain is).

03. Pompousness/Showing off (would love it if it is integral to someone’s personality e.g. Shah Rukh Khan).

04. Cranky Children (it is the fault of adults. Children should always remain Happy).

05. Bickering.

06. Pep Talkers/Self proclaimed motivators (hate it when total strangers come up & say: “Try, you can do it”. Appreciate it from people who have passed through similar situations or from people I love/respect).

07. Anger (it makes me physically stiff, hampers my abilities to talk, so I always try to delay the thoughts that may bring anger).

08. Lack of Application.

09. Imposing Ideas.

10. Extremism of any kind.

Three Mediocre Poems

I wrote these poems between late-teens and mid-twenties. An age when everyone feels that what one is going through are the most original things that no one else before him has experienced or will experience in future. I wonder if I was bit late in going through such a phase in life, as everything else happened a bit late in my life then it is supposed to be. In the those days there was a heady cocktail of Ghazals of Pankaj Udhas, Jagjit Singh etc. and literature and discourses of Osho pushing me. Above all, I was buoyed by the fact that a couple of my ‘Letters to the Editor’ and a couple of amateur film reviews had been published in newspapers and magazines.

Your Eyes

Your deep brown eyes

The depiction of truth and honesty

Whenever they look into me

They reach the depth of my soul

And come out with treasures hidden in it

I feel like a fool

Searching for words

To describe Creator’s creativity

But I need steam of words

For the feelings boiling in the kettle of my heart.

Memories

There is corner in my heart

Which I keep as a locker

To store my past

Its memories sweet and sour and bitter

Present a kaleidoscopic picture of my past

And tell me how well I fared with my lot

The way memories dominate my mind

It helps me to run away from ambiguity of my future.

Lost

Dreams are lost with the sweet slumber.

Wishes are buried deep inside the heart.

The vulnerability to love,

The courage to hate,

Is lost.

Hopes for the future,

Memories of the past,

Are lost as I pass through the present.

Futility of existence pierces the soul.

Now I wish my life to be lost in the oblivion of eternity.

An Email that made my day

From: VISHWA BHATT [mailto:bhattvm@yahoo.com]
Sent: 11 November 2005 23:34
To: pcpalicha@sify.com
Subject: Re:Interview!

Dear Pareshji,
Thanks a million for your mail.
It is a fantastic interview you have written.
I am so thankful to you for this.
I appreciate your command not only over the language,but the subject also.
It is one of the most authentic interview.
I wish u all the best,
Thanks,
Vishwa Mohan Bhatt.

Paresh Palicha wrote:
Dear Panditji,

I will ever remain grateful to you for giving me the opportunity to interview you when you were in Cochin, Kerala last month. The interview was published in the Hindu. I will courier you a copy very soon. I have attached the weblinks.

http://www.hindu.com/fr/2005/10/28/stories/2005102801230200.htm


http://pareshpalicha.blogspot.com/

Your ever grateful follower

Thanks & regards,
Paresh

Interview with Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt

The ‘charmer of the world’, that is what his name means. And, he remains true to his name; he mesmerises and enthrals the listeners with his music. That is Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt for you. The inventor of Mohan Veena (a modified version of Hawaiian guitar made to suit the rigours of Indian Classical music), Vishwa Mohan Bhatt left the city listeners spellbound with his music. The magical spontaneity of his instrumental music interspersed with his singing left the listeners speechless.

The concert was held in aid of Raksha, an institute taking caring of children with special needs. The maestro reached the institute the morning after the concert to inaugurate the newly built hostel facility for the students of Special Teachers’ training course conducted by the institute. Panditji (unperturbed by the raucous excitement all around him) sang for the children and also listened and appreciated the talent of few singers bred by the institute.

The musician and his instrument have become synonymous over the years, but the beginning of his attraction and fascination for the western instrument is not commonly known. Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt started his tutelage under his musician father with a traditional Sitar. Guitar came into his life when a German lady came to his father to learn music from him. The household had every kind of traditional instrument, so they decided to buy the guitar which the German lady was carrying. Being of an impressionable age Vishwa Mohan was fascinated and started playing instrument lap-style. It was similar to a Vichitra Veena or a Ghotu Vadiyam “I was attracted to this instrument and started playing it”, he explains. The modifications came later. “I thought of doing something new, and Mohan Veena took birth”, says the creator with diminutive pride.

Mohan Veena has almost 20 strings in the place of 6 strings found in a normal guitar.

Vishwa Mohan Bhatt has time and again dabbled with fusion music, which has also brought him international recognition in the form of a Grammy Award in 1994 for his album ‘A Meeting by the River’ in collaboration with Ry Cooder. He feels that fusion music is just the utilisation of your music in a different dimension. Some orthodox people are against it because they feel it is a dilution of purity of our traditional music. It is a comparatively new concept and will take some time to be accepted. “I am against the dilution of purity when somebody is practising pure classical music”, he adds.

The subject of fusion music brings into focus the recent trend of ‘Musical Reality Shows’ on television. The maestro feels that the trend should be appreciated for it brings music into focus in true spirit. But on being probed further about the competitive streak propagated by these shows, which is against the tenets of Indian Classical music: he agrees that he dislikes the tendency to pit one singer against another and judges making bad remarks if a singer takes a false note and singer crying in front of all the people. “Music is the individual identity of a singer, just as your face is your identity, so judging who is better among two given singers is not good”, he says and adds that he used to like ‘Sa Re Ga Ma’ (telecast on Zee TV) for it projected the talents of individual singers, but in recent days it has taken the same path as others.

Vishwa Mohan Bhatt has also lent talent to film music also. He has played for A. R. Rehaman in films like ‘Iruvar’, ‘Thiruda Thiruda’, ‘Sathiya’, ‘Lagaan’ and a few
others. His independent composition for Jug Mohan Mundra’s controversial film ‘Bavandar’ got rave reviews in the festival circuit.

Vishwa Mohan Bhatt is positive about the future of his invention. “I have been playing this instrument for the last 38 years and in my own humble way contributed towards music. Now my students from world over (including my son Salil) will carry it forward.

An edited version of this interview appeared in The Hindu