What exactly are they supposed to learn?

Nursery rhymes, those stupid things I was made to recite without understanding a single word.
Looking back I am really glad I did not understand them.
I mean, why would you want to learn some thing like Jack and Jill.
Two presumably hardworking kids climb up a hill to get a bucket full of water, lose balance and sustain possibly fatal cranial injuries.
Why!!!

Nice roly-poly character Mr. Humpty Dumpty is peacefully sitting on the wall, watching life go by. Falls, breaks and then no one can fix him again.
I am sure orthopaedic surgery did not form a part of military training those days.
No wonder all the king’s men and horses could not put him together again.
What were you hoping?
HORSES!!! For god’s sake. (I once tried to make one pee in a can, THAT was a strain on its brains)

I remember my four year old cousin singing a stupid thing called Piggy on the railway.
Now this one’s about a innocent little piggy picking stones on the railway line (Now why would a pig do that?) who gets run over by an engine who’s engine driver say’s I don’t care.
The kid lives in Mumbai, crosses the railway line to go to school, father takes the local train to work, spend more than 3 hours in the train every day.
Am I glad that the school is actually no good and my cousin still does not really understand English!

London Bridge is falling down, a tale for massive catastrophe which destroys one of the most valuable historical monument of the time.
Why!! Why!!
What kind of a person living in a largely monsoon dependent, agricultural society asks rain to go away, and to Spain (where is that)!!! And don’t show your face again?
Why!!
My dear pet ‘s in the well, drowning, now that’s the kind of thing I would want to sing. So I start Ding Dong Bell…
Nice good looking girl in beautiful long black skirt is eating her evening snack. Miss Muffet had to be terrorized by a spider. And I shall sing for that.
Three visually impaired rodents get their tails severed by the farmer’s wife. Now that’s something you got to celebrate.
!!!

Ring-A-Ring Roses. I loved this one, largely because I don’t understand a word of it.
I liked it till Asha happed to describe the origin of the thing.
It seems it was some kind of chanting to ward of the plague. Ring-a-Ring Roses is supposed to stand for the red rashes that are first symptom of plague. “Pocket Full of Posies” are supposed to keep the plague away. But then they all get the Pneumonic Plague and sneeze and sneeze, Hush Busha and eventually all fall down to their death.

Now did I really need to learn that?

If I ever have kids, they are never going to school.

Black Friday

Music: Indian Ocean
Lyrics: Piyush Mishra

Bharam Bhap Ke, Sharam Dhap Ke Karam Naap Ke Bhaga re..(3)

Jamhuri Ki Mala Ban Gayi (3)
Jee Janjaal Ka Jaala Re

Bharam Bhap Ke, Sharam Dhap Ke Karam, Naap Ke bhaga re..(3)

Jung Ka Rang Sunehera Samjha(3)
Lekin Baad me Gehera Samjha
Jung Ka Rang Tha Kaala Re..

Bharam Bhap Ke, , Sharam Dhap Ke, Karam Naap Ke Bhaga Re..(3)

Bharam=Illusion
Bhap= to realize
Sharam=Shame
Dhap=to cover
Naap=to measure
Jamhuri=People, Public
Janjaal=Trouble
Jung = War
Sunehra = Golden
Gehera = Deeper, Denser
Kaala = Black

Like the part in bold, Dont understand the "Jamhuri ki maala......" line.

Happy Losar

www.tibetlink.com: "Happy Losar (Tibetan New Year). Tibetans all over the world celebrated Tibetan New Year Which falls on February 9th 2005, The Year of the Wood Hen. The word Losar is a Tibetan word for New Year. LO means year and SAR means new. "

Made it to Bylakuppe right in time to celebrate Losar. Stayed inside Sera Jey monastery.
Two days, 525 Kms on bike, 4 Tibetan monasteries, 10 Km of walk on starriest of nights I have seen.

Crash course in Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

All Pictures
Truck Load of Monks and Monkeys (Female monks are actually called just Nuns) headed for the big new year bash

BLACK

Was discussing the other day about three "Black" movies releasing back to back (Black Friday might never come to theatres) when I suddenly realise that every single thing that I bought through the past one year is black (or gray or dark blue that Mom refuses to recognize as anything but BLACK). Two black Sweatshirts, One black trouser, One Black Kurta, another almost black kurta, Two black T-Shirts (One saying "Life Sucks, Suck it back"), one black backpack saying "Shit happens"
Is there a pattern?

Intelligent Design

A theory I always believed but had trouble puting into words, without dragging "God" or "Super-Natural" into it.

An Introduction to Intelligent Design: "What is Intelligent Design?
Something has been intelligently designed when it is the end product of a thoughtful process that had that product in mind. In other words, intelligent design originates in a mind.
"

The Theory:
The theory of intelligent design holds that certain features of the universe and living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, and are not the result of an undirected, chance-based process such as Darwinian evolution.

Bhor

Bhor— a Sufi journey, is about the bird's flight in the perspective of its abode on the shady branch below, the sky above and lurking threat of the bird catcher around, again drawing a simile with life.

bhor:

"katal bhi aisa hua ke panchhi mar ke maala-maal
allah mere chidibaaz ne aisa phenka jaal
katra katra aasman hai
boojhi asal udaan.................."

Went for the Unity Concert on Friday.
(Thanks, Cristabel for the passes and Usha for "VIP" seats)
Indian Ocean were absolute "God level"
Sounds as Indian as they get and Lyric divine.
Bhor is a song from their second (I think) album Jhini after Kandisa.
(Just saw Kandisa on number 5 on Indi Pop top 10 rack at Music World. Over 10 years after the album was recorded. No video, No radio performance, Not a single TV appearance. How's that for Ageless Music)

Made Asha buy Black Friday (That's a movie based on Mumbai blasts).
Now, playing "Aray ruk jaa re banday" for 5th time in one hour.

PS: Strings were there too. That's all there's to say about their performance.

Life and Death

To Aditi, who messaged me this the night before her final semister MBA paper.

Penguin Books India > Free Chapter > Life of Pi: "When you've suffered a great deal in life, each additional pain is both unbearable and trifling. My life is like a memento mori painting from European art: there is always a grinning skull at my side to remind me of the folly of human ambition. I mock this skull. I look at it and I say, You've got the wrong fellow. You may not believe in life, but I don't believe in death. Move on! The skull snickers and moves ever closer, but that doesn't surprise me. The reason death sticks so closely to life isn't biological necessity. It's envy. Life is so beautiful that death has fallen in love with it, a jealous, possessive love that grabs at what it can. But life leaps over oblivion lightly, losing only a thing or two of no importance, and gloom is but the passing shadow of a cloud."
~Life of Pi: by Yann Martel