The Piano Men...

"It's nine o clock on a saturday
The regular crowd shuffles in
There's an old man sitting next to me
Makin love to his tonic and gin"

....these are the starting lyrics from Billy Joel's chartbuster " The Piano Man" and one of the many melodies to which D and I sang along as we spent Saturday evening watching two of the greatest "piano men" of all times, live in concert...Billy Joel and Elton John, face to face...

After watching 'Bruno' on Friday night, anything else we did on Saturday would have been more than a refreshing change. Speaking of 'Bruno', I never have and never will be a fan of the Baron Cohen kind of humor (at least it seems unlikely in this lifetime!!)...I read somewhere that the movie has invariably got just one of two kind of reviews...while some viewers have deemed it 'extremely hilarious'...others have deemed it 'immensely disgusting'...and without doubt, I definitely belong to the latter category of movie goers !!

It was all good that we had already booked tickets for the live concert on Saturday where the rock and roll legends were performing some of their greatest hits...love for all forms of music is something that D and I passionately share and both of us were really looking forward to it. We had watched 'The Eagles' last year when they were performing in DC as part of their "Long Road Out of Eden" tour and since then, we have nurtured this secret hope and dream of being able to watch at least one musical legend ,live in concert, every summer...this time around ,it turned out to be a double treat with the two "piano men" in a face to face concert :-)

Instead of driving into south east DC, we decided to take the metro to the Washington Nationals Stadium, the venue of the concert.As we got off the orange line at L'Enfant PLaza , it was almost as if we were swept by a tide of people to the platform from where the Green Line was supposed to take us to the venue of the musical event...people of all ages were lined up to get into the metro to see the piano men in action...among them, was this grey templed , cheerful man standing beside me...he scanned the crowds, smiled at me and said, "I am surprised to see so many youngsters like you around...for some reason, was just expecting middle aged people like me to be interested in this kind of music...never realized the rock and roll music of the 70s and 80s still sells among youngsters"...I couldn't think of anything more apt to say in response to this other than "That's what makes Billy Joel and Elton John legends, I guess" ...just then the train arrived and there was this huge round of applause and cheer from the crowd... the celebrations had already begun with the crowd all geared to sing along and dance to the beats of the musical greats...

And boy, the legends didn't let us down as they treated us with a taste of their evergreen hits...Billy Joel's 'River of Dreams','Moving Out','Stranger','Uptown Girl','Only the good die young','My Life','Zanzibar','She's always a woman' and Elton John's 'Rocket Man', 'Daniel','Candle in the Wind','Don't let the sun go down on me' being a few of the plethora of melodies that were performed....At the end, the two great artists traded vocals for each others compositions...and they finally concluded the show performing the surreal vocal-piano-harmonica combo...'The Piano Man'...

As I watched the fingers of the musical genius',oh so deftly, move over the pianos and create magical music , I realized that it was about time I got down to some serious business, as far as my guitar/piano learning aspirations are concerned, instead of just dreaming and building castles in the air about being able to someday strum my favorite tunes on the guitar and create melodious music on the piano...oh well, yes, they are big dreams, big dreams...no harm done though in dreaming big, I guess...after all that's what keeps the zest in life alive,doesn't it!!However my "learn it yourself" strategy having miserably flopped last summer, I better go and seek the help of dependable friends, 'google' and 'craigslist', to assist me in my search for a good music teacher if I want at least some part of the dream to turn into a semblance of reality...

Till then, I will have to just make do by thanking and admiring everyone who makes great music...

Rooting for the underdog...

For all those who know me well, I am not a sports maniac, quite unlike D...I do like watching tennis, cricket and a bit of college basketball…however my interest in these games too is limited to the more exciting part of major tournaments aka quaterfinals, semi finals, finals etc. As to with whom my loyalties lie in the games that I do watch, understand and enjoy...oh yeah, it's always with the quintessential underdog, provided , of course, he /she puts in the fight of a lifetime in an effort to grab victory from the clutch of the one deemed favorite. As to all the other games that I am compelled to watch just to give D company, I inevitably end up rooting for the team D doesn’t support (just to add some excitement to the whole game watching process) or more often than not, the team with the better looking dudes :-)

There is one exception to this support for the underdog however, and that is when India as a team or an Indian player is in the game. But more often than not, they end up playing as the underdogs and even if they do happen to be the favorites in a tournament, it's rare to see them keep up the momentum and the winning streak to reach a position where they are actually defending a title...sad but true, for whatever reasons...so, for the major part, I am saved the ordeal of feeling guilty and unpatriotic for subconsciously empathizing with a non-Indian underdog playing against an Indian favorite:-)

I very vividly remember the 1992 Wimbledon final...the thrilling five setter between Goran Ivanesevic and Andre Agassi...I was sitting at the edge of my seat in our family room in Guwahati and cheering Ivanesvic all the way till the end when Agassi hit the winning championship point...17 years since then, that aspect of me hasn't changed much...yesterday as I was watching the Roddick- Federer Wimbledon final, I was sitting at the edge of my seat hoping that Roddick would hit the winning point...I love Federer (other than his habit of weeping at the drop of a hat ) for the brand of power precision tennis he plays, but I desparately wanted Roddick to win for the long, brave fight he was putting in...

A lot of my friends echo my thoughts of involuntarily supporting the one deemed less likely to win a game ...there are, of course, quite a few others who do not resonate our thoughts and believe that a champ is a champ because he deserves to be at the top and that in sports, there is absolutely no room for empathy…skill, talent, power and killer instinct are all that matter…after all it’s records and names of winners on the mantle that are passed on as legacy from one generation to another…I hear them and all that they say makes enormous sense to me…but I still root for the underdog :-)

I wonder what is it that's so appealing about an underdog to those of us who inevitably support them!! Perhaps an underdog, putting in a brave fight against all odds, personifies the tenacity and resilience of the human spirit...perhaps we see a bit of ourselves and our imperfections in him or her... perhaps because at some point in our lives, we have all felt small and powerless and yet have wished and worked hard to change our destiny…perhaps because we believe and want to continue believing in fairy tales.. perhaps there is some message of hope in each of the stories of underdogs, rising from the ashes like the phoenix, urging us to follow our dreams, hold on to hope and overcome our personal mountains...

The Man in the mirror...

The 'Man in the mirror' has faded away...

He was a prodigy and a child singing sensation at the age of 5, a teen icon at the age of 18, a superstar at the age of 25...a singer, dancer, composer, lyricist, entertainer...he rose to the helm of superstardom in a jiffy and fell from the pedestal just as fast...he was wealthy but lived beyond his means...early on in his career, he was deemed a shrewd investor...in the last decade of his life, all his investments were deemed foolish...he was a philanthropist...he was an apparent victim of child abuse and extreme parental pressure that drove him to the limit...he never lived the childhood every human being deserves...he was a man who never seemed happy with the way he looked...he was a perfectionist...he was weird...he was complex...he was once a handsome, vivacious trendsetting youngster ...at a later stage in life, he had almost transformed to an alien...he was accused of the inexcusable crime of child molestation...and his death now is shrouded in a possible case of prescription drug abuse... understood by very few, he seemed like a very lonely soul...a man many found difficult to love,but even more difficult to hate...

Yes that's Michael Jackson ...the good and the bad...the black and the white ...the known and the unknown...and of course the very visible shades of grey...and today, "The King of Pop" is dead at an age when very few of us, lesser mortals, can claim to have achieved what he achieved in just the first 25 years of his life...

Over the past one and a half days, news channels have flashed snippets and stories about MJ's life and death ...the internet has been clogged by fanatical fans trying to make sense of his life and his sudden passing away...

In the midst of this frenzy , as I follow the various news clips and my feet involuntarily tap to the trendsetting beats of " Billy Jean" and " Beat It", a question crosses my mind...all of us , humans beings, have shades of grey in our personalities, don't we? I am sure there are instances in every persons' life, when he /she looks at the mirror , literally and figuratively, and doesn't like what he/she sees...But what is it that pushes some people to the brink of insanity, darkening the shades of grey that's inherent in human nature, almost pushing them into a bottomless pit ?

It's one of those questions, I guess, to which there can never be an unequivocal answer...

With that question lingering in my mind, as an era comes to an end with the death of Michael Jackson, I realize it's about time we gave him the benefit of the doubt...I mourne the passing away of a legend, accepting those shades of grey in his life, instead of trying to judge and classify those shades as black or white ...I seek solace in and celebrate the beautiful music that only he was capable of creating...

After all not every human being is fortunate enough to learn and understand, early on in life, that with great power,talent,wealth and success comes great responsibility...I guess MJ was not one of the fortunate ones...

But then, of course, neither is every human being capable of achieving what the 'King of Pop' achieved in his short life span...

While his legacy lives on in the form of his amazing musical creations, may his soul rest in peace !

Food for thought...

So Sunday, May 10th was Mother’s day…and my friends with kids, who had rushed to the mall to pick up last minute gifts for their wives, were of the unanimous opinion that the malls were packed to the hilt with male folk and kids on Saturday evening and Sunday morning so that preparations, for the mothers to be pampered, could be completed in good time :-) …

I hadn’t realized until that point of time, that over the years, Mother’s Day celebrations have gone on to assume such importance in the lives of families…it was cheering to see the children ,aptly prompted by their dads, do small things for their mothers in their own special ways as a token of their appreciation and love…

Noticing all these celebrations around me, my thoughts transitorily dwelled on Ms. ‘S’, a lady I have met just once and perhaps will never meet again…and just for a moment, I was overcome with this overwhelming sense of helplessness.

About a month back, I volunteered at this organization called One Brick for an event “Bowling with KEEN”. Kids Enjoy Exercise Now (KEEN) is a nonprofit, volunteer organization and in association with One Brick holds these bowling events every month for children and young adults having disabilities such as autism, cerebral palsy, down syndrome, various intellectual and developmental disabilities. So the event I signed up for was a KEEN bowling event where a participating athlete, with special needs, is paired with a volunteer coach for an afternoon of bowling.

I had been thinking of getting involved in some such volunteering activities involving children /education etc for quite some time …but it took a final push from a friend, Rush,who took the initiative to sign up for the event, to actually make me get out of bed relatively early on a Sunday morning (by early, I mean 10:00 a.m., the lazy bum that I am :-) ) and get to 'Strike Bethesda' to bowl with those wonderful youngsters. And am I glad that I managed to overcome my laziness and get to the bowling session that Sunday afternoon(despite having this last minute urge to go back on the commitment I had already made…believe me, my brain was baiting me with a lot of excuses…incomplete household chores …hectic long week at work coming up etc.etc. :-))!!

To say the least, the event was a sobering experience and filled me with an overwhelming sense of gratitude for all the good things that I have been blessed with in life…

As a volunteer coach, I was paired with ‘P’, a 20 year old adolescent in the body of a 10 year old child…a wheel chair bound youngster …a fragile shriveled being… who was almost oblivious to the world around him and not responsive to anything other than the occasional gentle touch of his mother…Ms.‘S’,the lady I mentioned before…a beautiful, dignified, single mom, whose world seemed to revolve around her son…

And on Mother’s day,as I rejoiced in the celebratory mood of my friends,I momentarily thought of Ms. S …

I wonder what she did…probably she had family around her to pamper her…I am sure ‘P’ must have made her feel special in his own little way…maybe…probably…perhaps…I really don’t know…all that I know is that it left me with a very sad feeling…

I personally love being pampered and appreciated by friends and family for big things and small on special and not so special days…I would be a hypocrite to claim that I don’t…

Nevertheless it made me feel that maybe...just maybe while all of us fortunate, privileged ones go on with our lives and have these ever growing list of special global days (Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day etc), to celebrate our relationships with the special people in our lives and also to endorse and rejoice in a sense of camaraderie with other people, who are fortunate enough to be on the same boat as us, we perhaps unknowingly exacerbate the void, pain and loneliness in the lives of those not as fortunate…

Perhaps, just perhaps…we have got into the habit of eternally looking for reasons to create hoopla and fuss about just ordinary days…

Cavetoons...

With summer just round the corner (at least historically...who knows this year we may just end up experiencing white, snowy months of June,July,August if the unpredictable weather pattern is anything to go by :-)), I have been doing some research on the theatre and standup comedy scene in the Washington DC metro area...

There are quite a few interesting shows and plays lined up for this summer...more about them in another post...I just want to post some cavetoons in this space for now...brought a huge grin to my face as I browsed through them again yesterday...

And as to what are 'cavetoons'...so we went for this show "Defending the Caveman" last summer ...essentially a stand up comedy, endorsing and accentuating the "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" philosophy. It was a hilarious show that left both D and me as well as the friends who accompanied us with that quintessential "feel good" feeling that arises from the realization that we are not alone, as far as having to deal with some of the apparently "atypical" idiosyncracies of our partners, is concerned ...

So here are some cavetoons(courtesy www.defendingthecaveman.com)...hope it will bring a smile to anyone who drops by the blog...

Mahalo Maui !

Aloha...

We just got back from a beautiful, relaxing and refreshing Hawaiian vacation last week...

Needless to say, it was pretty difficult bringing ourselves back to work and to the world of mundane daily chores after spending five days in what seemed like paradise…

We were visiting Maui, the lovely Hawaiian island bang in the middle of the Pacific and eons away from the mainland…the land of beautiful sunsets...swaying palm trees...acres of sugarcane fields...miles of gorgeous white, black and red sand beaches...land of kula coffee and mai tais...the Haleakala volcano...hula dancing...laulau...poi...luaus...leis...beautiful beed and shell jewellery...amazing hand carved wood trinkets...adorable Polynesian people and culture...

It was an unplanned trip and was hence all the more exciting...the beach bums that D and I are, a major portion of our five day vacation on this gorgeous island was spent beach hopping, sun bathing and engaging in a variety of water sport activities. We drove up the Haleakala volcano and hiked a couple of miles down...walked above the clouds at the crater summit...drove along the unpredictable pacific coastline forming the island ... explored part of the sometimes rocky ,sometimes serene pacific landscape/terrain on car as well on foot...and of course sipped more than our fair share of 'mai tais' as we watched the sun go down everyday ...

It was a different kind of sunset each of those five days...the sun would go down, filling the sky in a splatter of soothing and daunting colors(I know for sure now that it's definitely possible for an experience to be soothing and daunting at the same time:-)).

I am an ardent nature lover...but that aside, my fascination and love for sunsets is augmented by the fact that I spend most of my pre and post twilight hours negotiating the notorious Washington DC traffic, thus rarely getting a chance to just sit down and watch the sun go down :-)...what else...we got a birds eye view of a clothing optional beach...and of course not to forget hogged on local Hawaiian food and drinks...

Here are a few pics of this piece of paradise on earth...Maui...

Us and Them...

Well for all of you Pink Floyd fans, this post is not really about their “Us and Them” classic which I so ardently love…this post is literally about “us” and “them”…the social stratifications created among humans by humans through prejudiced beliefs…

When educated, young politicians go on to make such inflammatory statements like Varun Gandhi did in Pilibhit (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/EC-files-criminal-case-against-Varun-Gandhi/articleshow/4275065.cms), it is depressing to realize that what all of us have been clamoring for so far i.e. to have educated, progressive thinking youngsters in the Indian parliament , with hopes that they will be able to guide India to become a world power by leveraging the secularity, the democratic ideals of the nation and the intelligence/ perserverance of the common Indian man, is perhaps just a utopian dream…

I have always been proud of coming from a country which nurtures as much diversity in terms of faith, language and culture as India does…a country where at a specific point of time in recent history, the two highest official positions in the country were held by two extremely talented individuals ...a Muslim president and a Sikh prime minister …both being from what are considered minority communities in a nation which is inhabited by the largest Hindu population in the world…

Wherever there is diversity, there is of course bound to be differences of opinion about matters big and small…and it’s all good that there exist different opinions or views about matters…but when these cultural differences take a turn for the worse to become prejudices and premises for judging people and actions, that’s a lethal step towards turning the moderates among common folks into extremists…and to be very frank it doesn’t take a genius or a scholar to realize that…

I personally believe that it’s all good to be proud of a faith by choice …after all each individual derives solace and strength from different sources…choice and belief in a faith is something personal but being prejudiced by a faith and demeaning others who do not concur with one’s beliefs is really not acceptable…

That brings me to another controversial topic about prejudices… “the caste system” in India…of course a lot has been written and discussed about the evils of this system and I need not delve into it further…just the other day, we were having a discussion among friends that transitorily dwelled on the caste system in India…that discussion, though short and of no specific significance, provoked me to go back and rummage my old diaries for tid bits of some of my teenage year conversations with my grandparents and parents about religion, faith and social stratification…

Born into a family which has never encouraged discrimination based on culture, religion or any such other societal divides, for the major part of my life I have been quite oblivious to the burden/superficialities that the belief in the caste system entails. Though no one I know endorses the system in black and white, over the years I have heard a lot of people say that the origin of the system lies in/is endorsed in the Vedas…

I have always been skeptical about this myth though, because my granddad always used to say that the Vedas do not endorse a specific religion or classification of humanity…they talk about a way of life …a culture…

So I did my bit of research and am I glad that my belief about the tolerance of the thoughts articulated in the Vedas and of Hinduism as a culture was proved correct!!!

The Vedas say and I quote, “‘Janma Jaat Shudra Sarve, Karmenu Brahman Bhavati”…this means, by birth all human beings are born inferior and it’s only ones deeds or “karma” that go on to determining how great or superior a human being grows up to be…


I wouldn’t claim to have read the Vedas or the Bhagavad Gita to completion…may be some day I will…but I am sure all scriptures of faith including the Quran, Guru Granth Sahib, the Bible and all others have the same thing to say about human kind….it’s just us lesser mortals, who have a way of reading between the lines in support of some of our prejudices…

I visit temples and love the feeling and the sense of inner strength that permeates me when the chanting of Sanskrit mantras reach a crescendo, I enjoy the serenity and peace that envelopes me when I pray in a Church, I am filled with an unsurpassed feeling of hope as I light candles in a dargah…and I am sure as and when I do visit a gurudwara and other sites of worship, I will be filled with similar thoughts and feelings…

All faiths, at the core, have the same things to say…to nurture respect and tolerance for others, to be humble, to appreciate the dignity of labor, to live and let live…

Life is, after all, far too short and beautiful to burden it with notions of “Us” and “Them”…