These guys at The Oatmeal are so much better than my efforts at this (see here and here). Almost make me feel like giving up blogging.
Almost, but not quite.
:-)
Zen.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Quote
Read the quote below in a book called 'Known Turf' by Annie Zaidi; will post a book review in a few days, for now, am reproducing the quote :
'Whoever the homeland may belong to, it is not merely a piece of geography. It is also not just history. Nor is it the rivers of the region, or the mountains. It is all those things that keep getting absorbed in your very being whether you want it or not.
- Krishna Sobti (writing about the creative process in 'Muse India)'
'Whoever the homeland may belong to, it is not merely a piece of geography. It is also not just history. Nor is it the rivers of the region, or the mountains. It is all those things that keep getting absorbed in your very being whether you want it or not.
- Krishna Sobti (writing about the creative process in 'Muse India)'
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
The Monsoon is Here
After tip-toeing meekly into Mumbai a few days ago, the Monsoon announced its arrival in its inimitable style with a furious downpour this morning. Strong winds, heavy rain, overcast sky, grey sea, water slapping the sea-front and throwing spray right over, water on the roads, cabs stalling, traffic jams, umbrellas turning inside out, wet clothes, colds, coughs, sniffles – Monsoon Mayhem 2010 begins now folks !
Notwithstanding the dirt, grime, delays and sundry inconveniences, there are those who love the Monsoon, this post is for them, a Hurrah to the start of the rainy season. Grab a cup of hot coffee or tea, biscuits to dip (or hot pakodas / samosas if you are lucky), put on headphones, stare earnestly at a word doc/ excel file /ppt and play these songs at full volume in the background.
This song first - to welcome in the monsoon, ‘Consider Yourself’ from the movie ‘Oliver Twist’. While it’s not a song about the rain, it does welcome someone with the lines below :
Consider Yourself....at home
Consider yourself.....One of the family
I’ve taken to you
So strong
It’ clear
We’re
Going to get along
And then this classic, ‘Singing in the rain’ from the movie ‘ Singing in the Rain’ starring Gene Kelly. And if you need to wake yourself up, here’s ‘Good Morning’ a perky song from the same movie.
Incidentally, has anyone noticed how the ‘beauty X brains = constant’ equation can be modified to ‘beauty X (sum of all talents) = constant’, and then it holds in every kind of situation. For instance, the best dancers such as Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire aren’t anywhere near as good-looking as Cary Grant or Gregory Peck, who aren’t really known for their dancing skills.
Just have to listen to ‘Raindrops keep falling on my head’ this morning.
This one is not really a song about the rain, but deserves to be listed as it one of Bollywood’s most famous songs sung in the rain – ‘Pyar hua Ikraar hua’ from ‘Shri 420’
‘Dekho zara dekho barsaat ki jhadi’ – a really cute song from ‘Yeh Dillagi, features the effervescent Kajol and Akshay Kumar
And to end with, a funky lively song in Marathi, ‘Dhaga la Lagli Kala’, warning – if you understand Marathi, you might not want to listen to this as it has some improper connotations. I don’t understand sufficient Marathi to get the double entendres and hence totally enjoy the song – yet more proof of the fact that ignorance is bliss !
From Anita – My absolute favourite rain song is this relatively unknown number that goes 'Sawan barse tarse dil' from ‘Dahek’. The song also has nice visuals of a rain drenched city and a happy Sonali Bendre skipping all over the place.Thanks for the contribution, Anita, had forgotten all about this song.
By,
Zen
Notwithstanding the dirt, grime, delays and sundry inconveniences, there are those who love the Monsoon, this post is for them, a Hurrah to the start of the rainy season. Grab a cup of hot coffee or tea, biscuits to dip (or hot pakodas / samosas if you are lucky), put on headphones, stare earnestly at a word doc/ excel file /ppt and play these songs at full volume in the background.
This song first - to welcome in the monsoon, ‘Consider Yourself’ from the movie ‘Oliver Twist’. While it’s not a song about the rain, it does welcome someone with the lines below :
Consider Yourself....at home
Consider yourself.....One of the family
I’ve taken to you
So strong
It’ clear
We’re
Going to get along
And then this classic, ‘Singing in the rain’ from the movie ‘ Singing in the Rain’ starring Gene Kelly. And if you need to wake yourself up, here’s ‘Good Morning’ a perky song from the same movie.
Incidentally, has anyone noticed how the ‘beauty X brains = constant’ equation can be modified to ‘beauty X (sum of all talents) = constant’, and then it holds in every kind of situation. For instance, the best dancers such as Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire aren’t anywhere near as good-looking as Cary Grant or Gregory Peck, who aren’t really known for their dancing skills.
Just have to listen to ‘Raindrops keep falling on my head’ this morning.
This one is not really a song about the rain, but deserves to be listed as it one of Bollywood’s most famous songs sung in the rain – ‘Pyar hua Ikraar hua’ from ‘Shri 420’
‘Dekho zara dekho barsaat ki jhadi’ – a really cute song from ‘Yeh Dillagi, features the effervescent Kajol and Akshay Kumar
And to end with, a funky lively song in Marathi, ‘Dhaga la Lagli Kala’, warning – if you understand Marathi, you might not want to listen to this as it has some improper connotations. I don’t understand sufficient Marathi to get the double entendres and hence totally enjoy the song – yet more proof of the fact that ignorance is bliss !
From Anita – My absolute favourite rain song is this relatively unknown number that goes 'Sawan barse tarse dil' from ‘Dahek’. The song also has nice visuals of a rain drenched city and a happy Sonali Bendre skipping all over the place.Thanks for the contribution, Anita, had forgotten all about this song.
By,
Zen
Saturday, June 12, 2010
The Random Self-Help Book: ‘Experience Says’
Zen wisdom for getting on in the corporate world :
1) ‘Check the source of the coo,
Before you end up handling loads of poo’
(Pigeons’ cooing sound nice from a distance, but let them get in, they poo on the floor and you have to clean it up)
2) Check the harness and the ropes before you rapell down a cliff
3) Better to check if you left the gas on before you are kilometers away
4) From ‘Making Money’ by Terry Pratchett :
“....Oh yes, mystic stuff doesn’t hurt, people’ll believe in any damn thing if it sounds old and mysterious. Doth not a penny to a widow outshine the unconquered sun ?”
“What does that mean?”
“I haven’t the foggiest idea,” said Moist, “I just made it up.”
Compiled By,
Zen (who else ?)
1) ‘Check the source of the coo,
Before you end up handling loads of poo’
(Pigeons’ cooing sound nice from a distance, but let them get in, they poo on the floor and you have to clean it up)
2) Check the harness and the ropes before you rapell down a cliff
3) Better to check if you left the gas on before you are kilometers away
4) From ‘Making Money’ by Terry Pratchett :
“....Oh yes, mystic stuff doesn’t hurt, people’ll believe in any damn thing if it sounds old and mysterious. Doth not a penny to a widow outshine the unconquered sun ?”
“What does that mean?”
“I haven’t the foggiest idea,” said Moist, “I just made it up.”
Compiled By,
Zen (who else ?)
Saturday, June 05, 2010
A song and a dance about Money
I watched a well choreographed version of the song ‘Money Makes the World Go Round’ at Shiamak Davar’s ‘Summer Funk’ show recently. Was motivated enough to search for the original song on youtube; and then to search for more songs on the same topic. In case you think of any more, drop a comment and I will add it to this post.
Zen.
1. To start with, of course, ‘Money makes the world go round’ from ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’, sung by Alan Cummings. Great song, I prefer this version to the Liza Minelli and Joel Gray version from ‘Cabaret’.
2. 'Money' by Pink Floyd, a Classic ! Sure you all know this song.
Here’s the link to the video, and this link also gives the lyrics.
3. ‘Mujhe mil jo jaaye thoda paisa’ – great song from a band called ‘Agosh’; did they have any other hits, they seemed to have vanished after this one.
Don’t miss the tongue-in-cheek allusions to the corporate world in this song; from ‘The Paisa Group – we change lives’ to the allusion to rich and successful actors in shampoo ads, the anti-pimple ad etc. The at-times-kooky subtitles running across the top of the screen add to the fun.
4. After ‘mujhe mil jo jaaye thoda paisa’, a similar refrain in English ‘If I was a rich man’ from the movie ‘Fiddler on the Roof’. An old favourite since childhood, it has lovely music; and I love the delicious detail in the imagined life the poor man could have had had he been rich, for instance, the wife developing a ‘proper’ (?!) double chin or building a staircase going nowhere ‘just for show’.
Right at the outset, he conversationally poses this question to God (or maybe fate), “so what would have been so terrible if I had a small fortune ?”
And then this is restated in the end of the song as :
“Lord, who made the Lion and the Lamb
You decreed I should be what I am
Would it spoil some vast eternal plan
If I were a wealthy man ?”
Lovely !
5. ‘Teri Dhoom Har Kahin’ – a really old song from an old Dev Anand movie called ‘Kala Bazar’. The film is essentially about an honest man (Dev Anand) who enters the black marketing business because he cannot make money through honest means. Sung by Kishore Kumar, the lyrics proclaim ‘teri dhoom har kahin, tujhsa yaar koi nahin, humko tho pyaare, tu sabse pyaaraa’.
Don’t you just love the irony in the stanza which goes ‘Daulat ka mazhab chalaake.....Hum ek mandir banaake....Poojengey tujhko bithaake’, especially the chanting after each line !
6. ‘Sabse Bada Rupaiyya’ from 'Bluffmaster' – cool Abhishek, catchy tune, enjoyable song.
An ‘inspired’ song, the original was sung by Rafisaab with the lyrics ‘Baap bhala na bhaiyya, Sabse Bhala Rupaiyya’; a later adaptation, sung by Mehmood in a song with Vinod Mehra and Moushumi Chatterji, is clearly recognisable as the ‘Bluffmaster song.
7. ‘Money money money’ by ABBA
This link also has the lyrics in the info section, and here is the video of the song from the movie ‘Mamma Mia! The Movie’.
8. ‘Money for Nothing’ – Dire Straits
9. ‘Paisa paisa’ from the recent movie ‘De Dana Dan’ – not a song I like very much, but in small doses it is quite funny.
10. A famous hit rap song in the 90s by Wu Tang Clan, ‘
Cash Rules Everything Around Me – C.R.E.A.M’ . Can’t say I like the song much, but it fits the theme of this post
Zen.
1. To start with, of course, ‘Money makes the world go round’ from ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’, sung by Alan Cummings. Great song, I prefer this version to the Liza Minelli and Joel Gray version from ‘Cabaret’.
2. 'Money' by Pink Floyd, a Classic ! Sure you all know this song.
Here’s the link to the video, and this link also gives the lyrics.
3. ‘Mujhe mil jo jaaye thoda paisa’ – great song from a band called ‘Agosh’; did they have any other hits, they seemed to have vanished after this one.
Don’t miss the tongue-in-cheek allusions to the corporate world in this song; from ‘The Paisa Group – we change lives’ to the allusion to rich and successful actors in shampoo ads, the anti-pimple ad etc. The at-times-kooky subtitles running across the top of the screen add to the fun.
4. After ‘mujhe mil jo jaaye thoda paisa’, a similar refrain in English ‘If I was a rich man’ from the movie ‘Fiddler on the Roof’. An old favourite since childhood, it has lovely music; and I love the delicious detail in the imagined life the poor man could have had had he been rich, for instance, the wife developing a ‘proper’ (?!) double chin or building a staircase going nowhere ‘just for show’.
Right at the outset, he conversationally poses this question to God (or maybe fate), “so what would have been so terrible if I had a small fortune ?”
And then this is restated in the end of the song as :
“Lord, who made the Lion and the Lamb
You decreed I should be what I am
Would it spoil some vast eternal plan
If I were a wealthy man ?”
Lovely !
5. ‘Teri Dhoom Har Kahin’ – a really old song from an old Dev Anand movie called ‘Kala Bazar’. The film is essentially about an honest man (Dev Anand) who enters the black marketing business because he cannot make money through honest means. Sung by Kishore Kumar, the lyrics proclaim ‘teri dhoom har kahin, tujhsa yaar koi nahin, humko tho pyaare, tu sabse pyaaraa’.
Don’t you just love the irony in the stanza which goes ‘Daulat ka mazhab chalaake.....Hum ek mandir banaake....Poojengey tujhko bithaake’, especially the chanting after each line !
6. ‘Sabse Bada Rupaiyya’ from 'Bluffmaster' – cool Abhishek, catchy tune, enjoyable song.
An ‘inspired’ song, the original was sung by Rafisaab with the lyrics ‘Baap bhala na bhaiyya, Sabse Bhala Rupaiyya’; a later adaptation, sung by Mehmood in a song with Vinod Mehra and Moushumi Chatterji, is clearly recognisable as the ‘Bluffmaster song.
7. ‘Money money money’ by ABBA
This link also has the lyrics in the info section, and here is the video of the song from the movie ‘Mamma Mia! The Movie’.
8. ‘Money for Nothing’ – Dire Straits
9. ‘Paisa paisa’ from the recent movie ‘De Dana Dan’ – not a song I like very much, but in small doses it is quite funny.
10. A famous hit rap song in the 90s by Wu Tang Clan, ‘
Cash Rules Everything Around Me – C.R.E.A.M’ . Can’t say I like the song much, but it fits the theme of this post
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