Poem: We are hungry

Hello Reader

1. Politician says...

We are not hungry,

but who denies the desserts?

Vote for our party,

you'll love our efforts.

We are all like a family,

helping our deceased, aged mother.

All we need is your blessings,

Big Brother,

pocket-full of currency

and a black leather blazer.

Forget our records,

why to dig the graves of the past?

We fell in the politics of blame game,

all the allegations were simply lame.

We follow the Mahatma,

we believe in patience.

We'll soon be better

than all other nations.

There will be smile, in every next door,

there will be no distress.

just be  with us till the end,

your work is in progress.

2. Common Man says...

We are hungry

but too lazy to cook.

For that we voted some faithful workers,

they all turned out to be crook.

We are resilient and helpless,

just like our deceased, aged mother.

You decide our fate,

Godfather,

we are like those amphibians,

we can sustain in any habitat,

First it were the outsiders,

Now it is you, leaders of our own race,

left us in a mode called disable.

All we can do

is discuss the nation's doom, at the tea table.

We wait for a hero to bring the change,

as doing such a task

is out of our range.

We follow the Mahatma,

we see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.

We don't want our hands to be dirty,

or bring any kind of stain on our clean and white veil.

3. Activist says...

And we are hungry 

but for a national cause.

In a hope to change things

though they don’t care about our loss.

We’ll keep fighting

for our deceased, aged mother.

Instead of enduring your cruelty,

we’d die, rather.

We follow the Mahatma, 

we believe in truth.

If you greedy gluttons disagree, 

we’d enlighten the youth.

Every time we try; 

you make sure, we fail.

And before we could scratch, 

you don’t let us grow our nail.

Enough is enough.

It’s time to revisit the August revolution,

nobody can stop our flight to take off.

It is the only path, only solution,

to never let the lantern turn off.

-Ashish

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Parvaaz: Takes you on a high

Two years ago, they performed at our college's fest 'Anaadyanta' as one of the participants in the event called 'battle of bands'. They won and it was not a surprise as all the rest of the bands sounded similar. But, Parvaaz stood out ‘coz of their unique compositions and genre. The psychedelic Sufi Rock Band performed once again at our college fest two years later when they were full-fledged artists. And today, they are launching their first Album ‘Behosh’.

It really feels good to witness and follow such artists from their very beginning. And as the lead-singer, Khalid Ahmed said at our college gig, “we started our journey from this college, on this stage.”

In their first performance at our college, two years back, they had performed two of their songs ‘Azaadi’ and ‘Balma’. The songs had a viral effect on the audience. Later, after the event the song somehow got circulated via phone to phone. God bless the person who recorded it. People were humming the songs as if they have been hearing those songs from ages.

I was lucky to meet them this year at our college gig and I was also given the job to take them to the lunch before their highly-awaited performance and to have such people in my facebook friend list.

And the same night, finally, we once again, witnessed their gig. As soon as they finished their sound check, nobody could stop themselves from running towards the stage and banging their heads as we went high on their celestial music. Apart from the accoustic guitar (Khalid Ahmed), electric guitar (Kashif Iqbal), Bass guitar (Fidel D’souza) and Drums (Sachin Banandur), they also used some very rarely used instruments whose name even I don’t know.

But, all I know is that those instruments were very classy and gave a very extraordinary feel to their music and also reflected the unique touch which is required. The lyrics were as penetrating as the music. It grows on you slowly and even before you notice, you would be singing along with the band. That’s the magic they create.

So, this is the one band which you should certainly not miss. I am very much looking forward for ‘Behosh’ and I am sure this band, in next two years, more or less, will be one of the leading Indian Rock bands. Just like Swarathma, Indian Ocean, Parikrama, this band has its own uniqueness which will take their flight into the cloud number nine and beyond.  

Your television is crying

Hello Reader

Are all the good writers dead? Are all the good actors dead?
What has happened to the realistic shows such as Malgudi days, Office-Office etc?
Switch on your TV and tune into any Indian channel on a weekday, the first thing you observe is a heavily loaded (with makeup, flashy jewelry and weight) women excreting waterfalls from their eyes and drum beats with temple-bells buzzing in the background. As if God is being cruel to them lifelong and as if they have been seeing only downs and facing hurdles all their life. Oh! please, shut that plastic emotions up. I seriously want to belt the writers of these daily operas. Broadcasting at national level, do they have no sense of writing a real story? If there were a law, these writers would have been given death sentence for writing those senseless, baseless dramas garnished with overacting by the people who try to act. Just to bring a new twist and spice in the tale, the complete theme of the story gets converted into a melodrama even though the show's actual purpose was to meet social issues. If there are 10 shows being broadcast ed on an entertainment channel, 8 of them have the same taste of family drama...containing a huge family living a larger-than-life life. There would be family living a lavish life in a palace or if they have to tell the story of a middle class people, the family would be living in a Mumbai based chaal or slum.

Oh! naive art directors, have you never lived a normal life?  Due to lack of creativity, even the titles are lifted from the old retro songs. And why do they keep on crying? IS there nothing that makes them happy.. or do they cry because of low pay they get. There is too much of negativity in these shows. Why can't they showcase a story that brings smile? And why isn't there no end to a TV show? it keeps on going...decades of crying. Uh! it does make a huge impact on the viewer's life too. A huge percentage of population watches these shows, not because they like it.
Now coming to music channels, MTv and Vtv used to be music channels some years ago. Following the trend, even these so-called youthful channels have been running these dramas.  The real music is lost.
Reality in these shows is hard to find. Reality in reality shows is even hard to find. To attract audience by creating unwanted drama, the real life stories of people are narrated in a filmy way... to gain cheap T.R.P.
Not only reality shows does that but even news channels. God save those news channels who create stupidest news you can ever imagine and actually dare to broadcast it. The range of their creativity is high though...they have been telling us the news of Aliens kidnapping farmer's cows. So it includes kidnapping, aliens, cow and drama. Now do I put that channel under news, entertainment, science, spiritual or just grabage.
Oh yes, how can i forget the spiritual channels. They are the ones who have been making fool out of television watchers. Recently, fortunately, the frauds such has Nirmal Baba have been unveiled who have been talking shit all day in these channels. Now here's the question Who the hell allows them and gives them space to do that on a national TV? It's like promoting con-men in open. Making fool out of people, telling lies publicly is stealing one's right to know the truth. 

I don't know about others but I am certainly fed up of these TV shows. Apart from some, rest all are simply lame.
We really require a lot better and creative story writers.
Indian television should grow up. Really, ASAP!

The 'endangered' Indian Sports

Ask them to name the players of the Indian cricket team and you won't be dissapointed as they'll have your answer in a blink.  The challenge begins when you ask them to name at least half of the players of the hockey team. By the way, hockey is supposed to be the national sport. Indian hockey team has won the highest number of Gold medals in the Olympic history and yet they have not been given much of the importance they deserve. People are so much indulged in spending time and money on cricket that they have almost forgotten that there are other sports to be looked upon. The amount and profit gained over cricket is more than all other sports taken together in India. May be this is the reason why sports are called sports and Cricket is considered as a religion. Taking advantage of this madness, the concerned authorities collaborating with business tycoons are making more money since the inception of county cricket leagues like IPL and ICL. They want to squeeze out every drop of what can be taken out of the this game like a child who sips out every drop of a fruit juice of a tetra pack till it gets completely squeezed and unshaped. Once known a gentleman's game, cricket, now is just a source of entertainment and gaining money, with no fair play and spirit. Joining the party are the evils like betting and ultimately, match fixings.

With a population so large, India could stand no where in other sports such as athletics. Football in India has never been taken seriously. The kind of comfort and attention that the cricketers get is never enjoyed by the other sportsmen.

SO far, out of 25 Olympic games, India could win only 20 medals taking all the games together.

The only reason I see is the bad facility and lack of sponsors in these 'endangered' sports.

If the national level players are treated so badly that they have to sell their medals for living, nothing can be worse. And seeing all this, even if someone is interested in joining a sport would be so demoralized that he would rather join his family business. That is like killing a sportsman.

The enormous amount of money spent on cricket, even if half of it is spent on building a proper sports facility in every state of India, giving proper fitness and physical training, the face of Indian sports will be completely different in coming ages. The youth could be motivated to join the sports they are interested in and get proper training in that particular sport. Auditions can be taken just like those talent hunt shows and the winners could be selected for higher level sport competitions.

But No, what will someone gain from winning a stupid medal? We the people are more practical. What will we do by gaining respect in the world level? We are poor people and all we want is money. Can't help.

Poem: Back into Harmony

She was always around me,

but anonymous was she,

under the hood,

a locked treasure.

I wish, I snatched her then

and left no regrets remain.

If only, I had found the right key,

had I written the right note on the staff,

up had been my life’s graph.

Love was always in my kit,

but masquerading was it,

behind the veil,

bag full of gold.

I wish, I played together, black and white,

Had I made all pieces fall in the place right.

Those were omens, the singing birds

and the old Radio, my friend.

If only, I listened.

Music was always there,

lost somewhere in the air.

All I had to do is knit the harmony,

to turn monotony into euphony.

The strings are now attached

and my heart now skips a beat

in melodious rhythm and retreat.

It sounds like percussion,

a bell rings

and pushes me on my way, to conquer my Passion.

Ashish

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