Beautiful Life

Boundless beauty all around

My envious heart shut-up

For want of things that doesn't belong to it

For some pleasure and momentary happiness

Cooed up inside blind to possibilities,

In its dark chamber brooding, scheming

With only sad little dreams to live

All surreal, everything abstract

The windows are barred

The sun it hurts

The wind too hard

Time heals all wounds

Even a bleeding heart has to sometime heal

Little by little when things get clear

When you will see life is still beautiful

Only too eager to hug you

Its you who stayed back untouched

Let life come to you...

Led Zeppelin Mania

When the four forces of rock shall meet - vocals, guitars lead and bass and drums together with the ancient knowledge of music passed down, a super group shall band in called Led Zeppelin!

There were simply so many groups contending to be super groups on the 60's and 70's heat-of-Rock era experimenting experimenting..

Led Zeppelin is one such band that came out of this trying age. So much of flavour, so much of energy and so much more. Band defying the laws of genrerism.

Many remember Led Zep for their audacious songs, specially those that contain staring-at-your-face sexual references like trampled underfoot, custard pie, Black Dog etc., and many more for the ones that refer to love

What I mostly got hooked on to (though must admit I loved the above ones a lot too :P)  are songs like Stairway to heaven, Carouselambra, Kashmir, Immigrant song, That's the way, Down by the seaside, The song remains the same and oh-and-so-many. I like them coz, these songs reflect my ideas of love and beauty. All these songs talk in one way or the other about the beauty of nature and celebrating the wonders of life . like take 'Down by the seaside'  for example,

 "Sing loud for the sunshine

Pray hard for the rain

And show your love for Lady Nature

And she will come back again"

Its pretty much clear that these bunch of people were the kind of people who appreciated the wonders of nature without being prejudiced by religious conformity. They saw things in their light and knew that it ought to be so without the intervention of man or god. I feel Led Zep are like those bunch of Druids or Hippies singing and dancing, in the pale evening light around the fire, about the glory of nature and love.

"There's a feeling I get

When I look to the west,

And my spirit is crying for leaving.

In my thoughts I have seen

Rings of smoke through the trees,

And the voices of those who stand looking"

These songs transport me to a world where man knew the secrets of nature, where he ran with the wild horses, whispering with the wind, the times when Druids held their prayers in Stonehenge and the Aryans wrote the Vedas glorifying the forces of nature as Gods.. Mithuna, Varuna , Indra.. Times, when we did not need wild superstitions, where we did not lay down out-right lies as reasons to keep people within a society, Where discipline and restrictions were unknown coz people knew what they were up to and not were led as sheep to the slaughter house (phew! pardon me for the out burst)

Well, all in all Led Zep is like a carnival, a Santa Claus bag if u will, rummage around and pull out anything you will be satisfied with what you found.  I am always surprised with the wide range of emotions these guys have covered.

Apart from the philosophy and the brilliant lyrics by all members there is simply no denying the masterful work by the band members on the music. Johnny Page is regarded simply as the Guitar Guru by all , John Paul is a brilliant bass player truly a genius, Bonham whoa! what a drummer!!! my god! listen to Bonzo's Montreux to get a taste of that electricity flowing through him.. My was head was totally buzzing for at least a hour! He is my guru, my inspiration! and umm.. ah.. Robert Plant, his voice has just the sort of appeal that can put you to dreaming open eyes and man, he sways! Singing his songs with his golden locks flying everywhere .. :D OK I'll stop here :D.

If you are looking out for bio and other Led related stuff check out this site http://ledzeppelin.alexreisner.com

I have tried too many times but I am just unable to pick a favourite .. they all are so crazily good. Every song I listen, goes to the top list only to be replaced by the next one playing!!

As I always said.. Boogie with Led Zeppelin people!!

Dave Matthews Band

 

Dave Matthews Band is the most blues band to me, although i knew The Doors and Keane long before, I never put them in the genre blues thanks to my ignorance of rock knowledge. Dave Matthews is "most blues" because I was introduced to this band as a blues band. I had such a antagonism with blues.. Thought them all to be very dull and boring that when I heard "Crash in to me" I left all my prejudices behind. Now I am so very devoted to this band lying down my eternal servitude :D to them. Just love the voice of Dave the way he croons 'crash into me...'  in the live version.. the way the saxophone (LeRoi Moore) and the drums(Carter Beauford ) and all the various sounds they innovate blending in harmoniously.   Its like Dave's guitar and Stefans's bass and Moore's Saxophone racing against each other ahead of what your musical ears can catch and then the sudden divination hits you and you go reeling back with perfect ecstasy. They are good, no, that's not the word geniuses, yeah!.

The Outsider

Meursault isn't like your average character, someone who isn't remotely bent to the whims of the society but is simply vaguely aware of them. Until the very end i.e., during the trails and during the lonely musings does he come to acknowledge their presence. He always lived according to what came to him. You would probably call him cold hearted. I don't have a definate classification for him. He is so adamantly alive, yes, that's what he is. He is so fully aware of his existance, of his desires. How can one classify such as him cold?

His ignorance or lack of interest in what the society regards as necessary could be called as his innocence, is it this that helped him smile on his final hour and understand the glory of death?

He is smart, that much is evident. His convictions cannot be shaken, like when he says he can't fake interest in something he has none, like when he refuses to turn to the chaplain even during the his last hours because he cannot recognise the existence of God, never did and now he simply cannot see why he should.

I love the last peice of 'The outsider'
"I must have had a longish sleep, for, when I woke, the stars were shining down on my face. Sounds of the countryside came faintly in, and the cool night air, veined with smells’ of earth and salt, fanned my cheeks. The marvelous peace of the sleepbound summer night flooded through me like a tide. Then, just on the edge of daybreak, I heard a steamer’s siren. People were starting on a voyage to a world which had ceased to concern me forever. Almost for the first time in many months I thought of my mother. And now, it seemed to me, I understood why at her life’s end she had taken on a “fiancé”; why she’d played at making a fresh start. There, too, in that Home where lives were flickering out, the dusk came as a mournful solace. With death so near, Mother must have felt like someone on the brink of freedom, ready to start life all over again. No one, no one in the world had any right to weep for her. And I, too, felt ready to start life all over again. It was as if that great rush of anger had washed me clean, emptied me of hope and, gazing up at the dark sky spangled with its signs and stars, for the first time, the first, I laid my heart open to the benign indifference of the universe. To feel it so like myself, indeed, so brotherly, made me realize that I’d been happy, and that I was happy still. For all to be accomplished, for me to feel less lonely, all that remained to hope was that on the day of my execution there should be a huge crowd of spectators and that they should greet me with howls of execration."

The mill on the floss

I was just sitting here and thinking about the earliest classics that made a huge impression on me, and before anything could flood in, I simply remembered the 'Mill on the floss' by George Eliot. Why do I remember this one in particular, no answer really, perhaps the strange bond that existed between the sky dark beauty who was shunned all her childhood and the cripple who saw her beyond her apparent appearance. Or was it the kind of persistent love she had for him despite the overtures by the other guy? or was it simply the evenings they roamed together in the forests that created a vivid mental image or the way they meet their end?. Whatever the reason I have always loved this particular book.

Green Commandos - Say No To Plastic

30 years ago plastics had not entered our lives. We used cloth bags as and when we went shopping. Shop keepers never gave away plastic bags for free. As a result of this price value being tagged on it fewer people used them. Our streets were not littered with heaps of plastics. Jump back to the present and what do we see? Plastic is as common as paper, people have taken it for granted. They no longer need to buy them, shop keepers practically shove it into your hands. dig up the ground and till nearly 8feet down you will find the earth littered with non degradable plastic.
More than 90% of the articles found on the sea beaches contains plastic. Plastic thrown on land can enter into drainage lines and choke them, resulting into floods in local areas in cities as experienced in Mumbai, India in 1998. It was claimed in one of the programs on TV Channel that eating plastic bags results in death of 100 cattle per day in U.P. in India. In the stomach of one dead cow, as much as 35 kg of plastic was found. Because plastic does not decompose, and requires high energy ultra-violet light to break down, the amount of plastic waste in our oceans is steadily increasing, since ultimately all the waste gets mostly dumped in the oceans due to unavailability of land fills in an already overcrowded country. The plastic rubbish found on beaches near urban areas tends to originate from use on land, such as packaging material used to wrap around other goods.
Apart from causing soil pollution, sewage blockages, cattle and mainly marine creatures mistake plastic for food directly or indirectly, blocking digestion and possibly causing starvation. About 44 percent of all seabirds eat plastic, apparently by mistake, sometimes with fatal effects. And 267 marine species are affected by plastic garbage—animals are known to swallow plastic bags, which resemble jellyfish in mid-ocean. Apparently according to one research plastics at oceans are actually degrading and releasing toxic chemicals and causing water pollution.
Is it not enough that we already burn tonnes of oil and destroy the delicate balance of nature, Is it not enough that our power hungry nature has pushed many a species to extinction? The excuse that the common man really don't realize what he is doing to the Eco system is no longer acceptable.While a few of us burn ourselves day in and day out working to protect our fragile planet, the rest of us are happily dumping her with tonnes of garbage, and not just any garbage , the most toxic non-biodegradable, plastics. Let us be very clear here, we have only one earth and only one chance. The Earth will not take this hands down. She is raging, and when her rage will hit us with full force, there will be no light of the day for the human race anymore. Already the production of plastics uses up a lot of fossil fuels and is endangering marine life. And if the lay man does not wake from his long slumber of sweet dream and face the reality, I am afraid there is no help for the turtles and other marine birds that have been affected directly by plastic pollution.
All we need to do is come back to the simpler lives we once lived. Break away from the habit of buying avoidable plastic bags. Carry a cloth/jute bag always. Bring awareness about the harmful effects of plastic to the people around you. Login to Green Commandos (www.greencommandos.com ) join the project 'Say no to plastics' in your area in an effort to make Bangalore plastic free by next year. Join us in our endeavor to bring plastic free culture to Namma City, Bangalore.

Green Commandos is a movement, to bring "Bottom to Top change" wherein people will change their attitude and lifestyle to change the system. New projects will be kick-started every three months. Some examples of future projects are - solar geysers in each house, composting in each house, apartment or building, Q-etiquette - everyone driving on the road in queues and a program aimed at encouraging people to adopt trees in different areas across the city.

The project 'Say no to plastics' was launched on 29th of August by Justice Venkatachaliah at Bangalore and sponsored by green connect, Maa communications,iframe creative, Big Adda, Youth for Seva, Net Impact Bangalore, Area civil defense (Area Surakhsha Mitra) and IYCN, The ambitious project spanning across until next year invites all volunteers to join the project in their areas. We have divided Bangalore into 700 odd 2km stretch areas. People volunteering will join their respective areas , pledging to 'SAY NO TO AVOIDABLE PLASTICS' and bring awareness among friends, family and others in their area. Schools will be roped into the project, wherein the kids are circulated with Green report cards which will contain around 15 questions like 'Did my Mom/Dad use avoidable plastic today?', 'Does my family have cloth/jute for shopping?' etc.,
Green booklet on 'Why say no to plastic'and Green commandos stickers will be circulated on shortly that will pull in 1200 Residential Welfare Associations of Bangalore and invite schools to participate in the drive.
Green Commandos are not symbolic people....We are change agents and we believe in real work and real change.Green Commandos is not a dharna, rally, strike or protest. We work at the grassroot level engaging people in their 2Km areas to make their areas Eco-fit. Everyone can be involved, drive home the change you want to see. Let's take the mission, make more people aware of the 'No Plastics Drive' by involving more people, refer them on 'Making Green Commandos' after logging on to www.greencommandos.com. If your area is not there, propose us to put your area in the area list. It is time when each of us take up responsibility to fight this menace aptly called the 'white pollution'. Here is a chance, Be a part of No Plastic Drive and make a difference !!!!

Know more about Green Commandos straight from the Famous GC's who have endorsed GC way of life:
Gul Panag (Our Ambassador)  http://www.gulpanag.net/gulspace/16-11-2009/going-green.html
Charu Sharma http://blogs.bigadda.com/cha4894247/
Vivek Agnihotri http://vivekagnihotri.bigadda.com/
Visit us at our Adda at http://www.bigadda.com/adda/_view/22907

Third Stone From The Sun

ummm.. tindin di di di din.. ta na na na na...
to the alien from Starfleet a message from a cackling hen..
You are a God!

What music.. what haunting notes.. and just right to give the thrill and goosebumps..
The first time I heard this Hendrix song.. the music haunted me for eternity, not even sparing me in sleep
I love the lyrics too.. ha ha .. Just my idea of Earth!