The moment you step out of your home city to 'get away from it,' you somehow end up craving it. That's what I realised when i decided to head out of Delhi for 10 whole days.
Strike 1:
The most crucial thing I wanted was to escape June heat; but thanks to global warming, the hills haven't been able to maintain their cool too much. Dalhousie and Co were sultry (though not as boring as some people thought); Mcleodganj was disappointing-ly warm. Nevertheless, it managed to recover soon enough with the onset of the monsson. Amritsar, our last stop, was closer to Delhi, paving the way for the return home.
Strike 2:
Everytime I saw a car with a Delhi number, it filled me with strange happiness. I thought of my poor 4-wheeler that sat glumly at home, unridden and unused, waiting eagerly for my return. Delhi is arguably the city with the worst road and traffic sense. Well...you have to witness highway driving in Himachal or Punjab to understand speed and its (no) limits. In my opinion, people who drive in Amritsar (anyone from the sumowallah to autowallah to skoda wallah to bike wallah to rickshaw wallah) would take the cake for the most amazing driving sense. God bless the paidal people.
Strike 3:
You can definitely find good and cheap eating options wherever you go outside Delhi, but you never stop weighing the scales. The food in delhi is more accessible- you always know where to get what- and somehow tastier, moreover if its ghar ka khana.Even Moti Mahal Delux Dhabha or Nick's Italian kitchen or Punjabi Rasoi can be forgotten.....
YOU'RE OUT
Makes you wonder why you need to leave then, in the first place...
But kya karen, one needs a break no? If getting rid would have been that easy, more than half of the world's problems could have been taken care of. You always end up carrying your world with you. Unfortunately, on a trip it adds to excess baggage.
Whatever one might say, Dilli wallahs can be found everywhere and are absolutely recognizable. I went to a restaurant in Mcleodganj with a friend and the propreiter immediately guessed we were from Dilli. As did another lady on our trek. Cool ain' it?
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Thursday, May 24, 2007
चलो दिल्ली! (race for Admissions 2007, DU)
अगले एक महीने में कम से कम एक लाख छात्र एवम छ्त्राएँ दिल्ली की सड़कों पर पायें जायेंगे। कारण: विश्वविद्यालय प्रवेशन। दिल्ली के 79 कालेजों में ३५००० सीटों के लिए वह संघर्ष करेंगे। कौनसा कालेज सही है और कौनसा कोर्स; इन प्रशनों के बीच उलझे हैं बेचारे विद्यार्थी। मेरी राय में कट ऑफ़ और मॅन कि इच्छा को मानदंड रखकर कोर्स का चयन करना चाहिऐ। यह ज़रूरी नहीं है कि किस कालेज के आप विद्यार्थी रहे हैं, बल्कि यह कि आप अपने कैरियर और अपनी सफलता के लिए क्या मार्ग चुन्न्ते हैं। इस राह का पहला कदम है सही कोर्स का चयन। कही-सुनी बातों पर निर्भर न करें क्योंकि अधिकतम वह पक्षपाती होती हैं। अपने से बडों के विचारों की क़दर करें पर उन्हें पत्थर की लकीर न माने। खुद अपने लिए सोचें और करें, और हर फैसला बिना सोच-विचार और अनुसंधान के न करें। फिर मह विद्यालय में प्रवेशन होने के बाद अगले ३ सालों अपने जीवन और अपने व्यक्तित्व को भरपूर संवारें। यह ३ साल शीग्र ही समाप्त हो जाते हैं, पर जीवन की रुख ही बदल देते हैं।
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
without that early fire, we wouldn't have cuisines
without the fires of war, territory, claim and fame, there would have been no history
without the fires of passion there would have been no generation
without the fire of ash, no pheonix would have been born
without the fire within individuals, there would be no consciousness
delhi, where the fire only breathes...
(ओरिगीनाल्ल्य फ़ॉर तत्त्व २००७)
without the fires of war, territory, claim and fame, there would have been no history
without the fires of passion there would have been no generation
without the fire of ash, no pheonix would have been born
without the fire within individuals, there would be no consciousness
delhi, where the fire only breathes...
(ओरिगीनाल्ल्य फ़ॉर तत्त्व २००७)
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Alter Ego(s)
A history that is either not known or has been forgotten
extravagance that is displayed; a look that is steel, concrete, glass, and reach that is sky high; a culture that is not gajar, mooli, cucumber, pyaaz, pata-gobi, pasta, bell pepper, with dressing, set on a salad bowl...I am 'mall' road and not 'maal' road. I am corporate not a CP bureaucrat...I am Gurgaon...
I am crowded, yet spacious; I am industrial, i am industrious; I am about growth and development, planning and management,global and urban...I am NOIDA
I am not yet a force to be seriously reckoned with; I am still an infant, rural and dusty. I have potential; I am the next satellite...I am Faridabad
extravagance that is displayed; a look that is steel, concrete, glass, and reach that is sky high; a culture that is not gajar, mooli, cucumber, pyaaz, pata-gobi, pasta, bell pepper, with dressing, set on a salad bowl...I am 'mall' road and not 'maal' road. I am corporate not a CP bureaucrat...I am Gurgaon...
I am crowded, yet spacious; I am industrial, i am industrious; I am about growth and development, planning and management,global and urban...I am NOIDA
I am not yet a force to be seriously reckoned with; I am still an infant, rural and dusty. I have potential; I am the next satellite...I am Faridabad
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Rabbi’s Bulla and Jugni, and the postmodern condition
Rabbi’s Bulla and Jugni, and the postmodern condition[1]
Amrita Singh
In an interview[2] in The Hindu, Rabbi Shergill quite candidly expressed the job of artists like him to understand art within the fabric of social reality, and amid chaos, the constructive role they have to play. His music expresses just that: a thinking youth, a thinking India. His music does not seem very unusual for the times. The kind of fusion of sounds and genres does seem to be the vogue for an age that lives on rock, bhangra or popular film music. However, the blend of rock, folk and traditional Sufi music, coupled with a combination of blazing Western-style guitar and philosophical, spiritual lyrics sung in Punjabi, do make for a unique listening experience. The multicultural experience that is generated through his music comes out of the openings that a ‘postmodern’ world offers. So we witness a shrinking of the world, with cultures, attitudes, thoughts and people coming closer. No longer is one form of authority, or one form of tradition or even one form of aesthetic privileged. There is a healthy in-distinction between “high” and “low” forms of culture. It is a world where everyone can speak, and anybody’s story is as true as anybody else’s. An exhilarating time to be living in, to be artistic in?
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(for the rest of the article, contact host)
Hence, at least in majoritarian India, the resulting condition is a postmodernist parody; some sort of a post- postmodernism, of greater fragmentation and questioning, resulting in chaos. The grand narratives have not necessarily collapsed. Religion still continues to be a strong determining force. People have surely been able to come together but it remains to be seen whether a collective sense of humanitarian responsibility can be generated. And somewhere Rabbi's is the classic story of struggle: of perseverance over rejection, of talent and passion over mediocrity and status quo, of sensitivity and inclusion over myopia and conformity. It is a great example of how music can transcend religious and cultural differences and transport you beyond the shimmer of surfaces[5]. He struggles with these irresolvable problematics, and to close listeners the complex is hard to overlook.
Notes
1.This term has been borrowed from Jean-Francois Lyotard’s The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Trans. Bennington and Massumi. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1984.
2. Refered to from the online edition of The Hindu newspaper, dated January 23rd, 2006. Interviewed by Mandira Nayar. http://www.thehindu.com/2006/01/23/stories/2006012305110200.htm
3. ‘Postmodernism and Consumer Society’ in Postmodern Culture, ed. Hal Foster. London and Sydney, 1985.
4. In his "Theses on the Philosophy of History," Walter Benjamin uses a Paul Klee painting, Angelus Novus, as his point of departure for thesis number nine. “A Klee painting named ‘Angelus Novus’ shows an angel looking as though he is about to move away from something he is fixedly contemplating. His eyes are staring, his mouth is open, his wings are spread. This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing in from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such a violence that the angel can no longer close them. The storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward. This storm is what we call progress.”
5. http://www.mtvdesi.com/video/
Amrita Singh
In an interview[2] in The Hindu, Rabbi Shergill quite candidly expressed the job of artists like him to understand art within the fabric of social reality, and amid chaos, the constructive role they have to play. His music expresses just that: a thinking youth, a thinking India. His music does not seem very unusual for the times. The kind of fusion of sounds and genres does seem to be the vogue for an age that lives on rock, bhangra or popular film music. However, the blend of rock, folk and traditional Sufi music, coupled with a combination of blazing Western-style guitar and philosophical, spiritual lyrics sung in Punjabi, do make for a unique listening experience. The multicultural experience that is generated through his music comes out of the openings that a ‘postmodern’ world offers. So we witness a shrinking of the world, with cultures, attitudes, thoughts and people coming closer. No longer is one form of authority, or one form of tradition or even one form of aesthetic privileged. There is a healthy in-distinction between “high” and “low” forms of culture. It is a world where everyone can speak, and anybody’s story is as true as anybody else’s. An exhilarating time to be living in, to be artistic in?
...................................................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................................................................................
(for the rest of the article, contact host)
Hence, at least in majoritarian India, the resulting condition is a postmodernist parody; some sort of a post- postmodernism, of greater fragmentation and questioning, resulting in chaos. The grand narratives have not necessarily collapsed. Religion still continues to be a strong determining force. People have surely been able to come together but it remains to be seen whether a collective sense of humanitarian responsibility can be generated. And somewhere Rabbi's is the classic story of struggle: of perseverance over rejection, of talent and passion over mediocrity and status quo, of sensitivity and inclusion over myopia and conformity. It is a great example of how music can transcend religious and cultural differences and transport you beyond the shimmer of surfaces[5]. He struggles with these irresolvable problematics, and to close listeners the complex is hard to overlook.
Notes
1.This term has been borrowed from Jean-Francois Lyotard’s The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Trans. Bennington and Massumi. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1984.
2. Refered to from the online edition of The Hindu newspaper, dated January 23rd, 2006. Interviewed by Mandira Nayar. http://www.thehindu.com/2006/01/23/stories/2006012305110200.htm
3. ‘Postmodernism and Consumer Society’ in Postmodern Culture, ed. Hal Foster. London and Sydney, 1985.
4. In his "Theses on the Philosophy of History," Walter Benjamin uses a Paul Klee painting, Angelus Novus, as his point of departure for thesis number nine. “A Klee painting named ‘Angelus Novus’ shows an angel looking as though he is about to move away from something he is fixedly contemplating. His eyes are staring, his mouth is open, his wings are spread. This is how one pictures the angel of history. His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing in from Paradise; it has got caught in his wings with such a violence that the angel can no longer close them. The storm irresistibly propels him into the future to which his back is turned, while the pile of debris before him grows skyward. This storm is what we call progress.”
5. http://www.mtvdesi.com/video/
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