Pointless Pondering

It’s almost ten years since I started blogging. I began on Avinash’s suggestion as I spoke so much about my experience with music. Over these years my relationship with music, and myself, has transformed greatly. I’ve had the pleasure of interacting with some wonderful readers and got to know some better. It has been a journey, one that has been, in many ways, an adventure. While I have greatly minimised my participation in other social-networking platforms, even deleting all such apps from my phone, it may still be a while before I bid adieu from here as well. I enjoy writing and sharing my thoughts, however senseless they might be, and it has often helped bring order to the chaos in my head. I have met some wonderful people on the various fora that I am a part of, but I have now taken almost all of my interactions offline. An ‘emoticon’ simply cannot convey what the senses experience through the intimacy of personal contact!

In these years, I have also observed the social discourses change with time - the way we perceive our rights and duties vis-a-vis the democracy that we take pride in.       The world over, people are protecting their own identities more zealously, stemming from a sense of insecurity, and finding expression through protests, agitations and even a tectonic shift in policy. Economies are growing but with an absence of distributive justice - the gap between the rich and the poor is simply widening. Women have reiterated the power of their sexuality bringing to book and speaking against men who put themselves in a situation of power to exploit. Our cinema-scape has changed and so have our sense of aesthetics with regard to books, music and attire. After all, ten years is a long time!

I found it surprising that, living in the times that we do, we could not protect the rights of a film maker to make movie of his choice - on a subject and manner of his liking; that a ban on the movie was sought on the (mis)placed grounds that it was hurting sentiments of a section of the people and could trigger violence. As the politicians watched in silence to protect their electoral constituents, in contravention of the ruling by the Supreme Court, the fringe protesting the movie found more fuel to their fire. I watched the movie more out of a curiosity than any ardent appreciation for the filmmaker’s flare for movie-making. While I was bored, and at times, aghast by the regressive portrayal of the ‘beauty and the beast’, I still would respect his right to have made the movie, the way he did. 

‘Health’ has found a whole new meaning - strength of mind and body. The mantra is pretty simple - eat healthy, read lots, keep the mind calm with music and strength-train. The process is essentially multidimensional, literally and figuratively. While, on the one hand, some women fight for their space under the Sun, demanding their rights of equality and dignity, on the other had, unfortunately, we have also have women who subscribe to patriarchal practices, creating moulds for women to fit into. If I am around ten years later, alive and still sharing my thoughts, I do hope that we have no more moulds for anyone. 

One of my favourite Ragas, popular with the Jaipur-Atrauli Gharana; I especially like the drut bandish - 'raina dina raise kateingi...':