The year was 1992 and i was close to being 10, that is when i first heard the sound of Rahman, a sound which would grow with me and has become eternal in my mind and in the minds of many others. AR Rahman was my first instance of music, an entity by himself and a man who was able to talk through his tunes and i know for sure he was not the first person on earth to do it, but he was MY first.
A time when only Ice Cream and Giant Robert mattered most to me, here was a man who made me equally happy every time i heard his songs. He was fun and i loved it, there was no computer and just a B&W Dyanora TV at home which would play his song once in a while and i would wait for hours for it to show up. AR Rahman means a lot to me now and he meant the same when i was 10, that in itself is a stellar achievement.
As i completed schooling, in 1999, i still remember listening to Dil Se uninterrupted without understanding a word of Hindi. He again, introduced Hindi to me and made me think it sounded nice and likable. I have loved the man for his music and had barely seen his interviews or for that matter any video to form an opinion on what kind of person he was, not that it makes any difference to his compositions. When i started to look out for him and his music, thats when i was told that there were better composers than him and hailing from Tamil Nadu, i was often told Ilayaraja was leaps and bounds ahead of the young Rahman. I had listened to Ilayaraja numerous times before and loved his music without knowing they were his, but i have to admit, the feeling was never the same in comparision to Rahman. Ilayaraja sounded Great and his melodies were soulful, but i missed the freshness which i found in AR Rahman. Every time, i think loud of what a Genius Rahman is, i am reminded by some one that he is not better than Ilayaraja.
Now, i am not a musician, but i know what i like and what i love. Ilayaraja, RD Burman are great in their own respect and i have to admit that i cannot compare them with Rahman as i have not listened to all their scores to know what they have done, but from what ever i have heard, they seem right up there and thats precisely what good musicians do. Music, from my experience has the ability to transform ones mood and impacts the soul, there is a huge difference between a good song and a good composition. Having listened to AR Rahman right from Roja Days till Rockstar, i can confidently say he has never composed anything less than a great score. Accepting Rahmans music as my most favorite, doesn't mean i have to compare him with others, it simply means he and his music matter the most to me.
Quite a few seem to have problems with his Achievements and credit the era of globalisation for his immense popularity. Few seem to know that what ever he has done in this era was not done by any of his contemporaries which speaks of his talent more than the marketing, there is something called "cause and effect" and the era helps widen the horizon, no doubt but, that doesn't diminish the cause by any means.
He is definitely a Genius and as the definition goes "a Genius is one of its kind with the ability to influence others" and as far as i know, Illayaraja or RD Burman did not create a want in me to learn music and what Rahman did amazed me and it made me try to learn how to do what he does (like i mentioned before i am not a musician yet) and i think he deserves to be credited for the impact he had in me. I was able to appreciate music in its entirety, Thanks to Rahman, without whom, i would have never known the power of music and for this very reason, i think he is my definition of music and not anybody else.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Monday, August 22, 2011
Anna Bandwagon and the state of denial we are in
There has been a huge rage back in India with the whole Anna hazare Lok pal bill and i am happy in a small way that there is a part of the society that wants to have a clean India and shows that it really cares. But, it worries me big time with the way the whole Anna drama has panned out, the bill seems to target the big ticket corruption more than anything else and fails to address the fundamental issue at the lowest level.
There are 2 major things that i personally dont agree with the Anna Drama as i would like to call it, the first one is the way in which the protests are happening and the idea of trying to use the energy seen on the streets to their advantage and not respecting the democratic way in which things ought to be handled. The second part of it is trying to make a sense of Anti Government energy across the nation which seems to be the way of life in India now. This government is corrupt and every one knows that this isn't the first government that is corrupt and neither will it be the last, we need to understand that the government is not the cause for all the corruption that happens in India and a large part of it happens because of the common man who most of the times fails to do abide the law of the land and in turn embraces corruption.
It would be stupid to imagine that a lok pal bill will eradicate all the corruption in India and will make our lives clean and happy, in fact, thats what many people are imagining right now and thats is exactly why this whole movement is stupid in my view. Assuming there is no big ticket corruption and assuming every damn politician out there is clean enough, would it mean a clean India or for that matter less corrupt India?
No way is the answer and why? Corruption is a part of almost every citizens life in India and many a times it happens with an interaction between 2 common men in India. How will the lok pal bill ensure that schools dont demand donation and how will it ensure auto wallas not charging more than they should, how will it ensure that government offices not demanding bribe for every transaction and how will it ensure hospitals not charging more for untold reasons. Corruption has to be tackled bottom up, it has to be curbed at the grass root level and we cannot start at the top and go to the bottom..as long as the base is corrupt, we will stay corrupt.
Our problems lie with us, we cannot adopt a theory that the politicians are the cause for the auto wallas charging more..if there has to be a change, it has to happen with the common man first. He has to believe in what is right and do it without any compromise. Laws need to be respected and the system needs to be trusted, we cannot fool ourselves by having another policing group (lok pal panel) and imagine that all troubles will be dealt with. Keep the streets clean and the desire to keep it clean has to come from within, rather than doing it for the fear of law. Change in attitude is what is needed more than anything else and respect for law has to increase, hate for politicians and the system will do us no good ever. For , we are the ones who voted and elected them. Corruption has to be tackled in many ways and lok pal bill might in all idealness, would form a very small part in ensuing eradication of corruption.
Finally, its disheartening to see the tactics adopted by young Indians to go on the web platform and do trash talk, instead of doing their bit to stay clean themselves for thats what will make India Clean, more than any bill that can ever be formed. Lack of social knowledge, is so obvious amongst many a educated youth in India, who thinks trashing the government means doing their bit and they can go back home and download mp3s from the Internet,watch movies on line, pay bribe when caught at the traffic signal and find all possible means to evade tax.
We have enough laws to deal with corruption and what is needed is the desire to abide them and stay truthful to the country.
There are 2 major things that i personally dont agree with the Anna Drama as i would like to call it, the first one is the way in which the protests are happening and the idea of trying to use the energy seen on the streets to their advantage and not respecting the democratic way in which things ought to be handled. The second part of it is trying to make a sense of Anti Government energy across the nation which seems to be the way of life in India now. This government is corrupt and every one knows that this isn't the first government that is corrupt and neither will it be the last, we need to understand that the government is not the cause for all the corruption that happens in India and a large part of it happens because of the common man who most of the times fails to do abide the law of the land and in turn embraces corruption.
It would be stupid to imagine that a lok pal bill will eradicate all the corruption in India and will make our lives clean and happy, in fact, thats what many people are imagining right now and thats is exactly why this whole movement is stupid in my view. Assuming there is no big ticket corruption and assuming every damn politician out there is clean enough, would it mean a clean India or for that matter less corrupt India?
No way is the answer and why? Corruption is a part of almost every citizens life in India and many a times it happens with an interaction between 2 common men in India. How will the lok pal bill ensure that schools dont demand donation and how will it ensure auto wallas not charging more than they should, how will it ensure that government offices not demanding bribe for every transaction and how will it ensure hospitals not charging more for untold reasons. Corruption has to be tackled bottom up, it has to be curbed at the grass root level and we cannot start at the top and go to the bottom..as long as the base is corrupt, we will stay corrupt.
Our problems lie with us, we cannot adopt a theory that the politicians are the cause for the auto wallas charging more..if there has to be a change, it has to happen with the common man first. He has to believe in what is right and do it without any compromise. Laws need to be respected and the system needs to be trusted, we cannot fool ourselves by having another policing group (lok pal panel) and imagine that all troubles will be dealt with. Keep the streets clean and the desire to keep it clean has to come from within, rather than doing it for the fear of law. Change in attitude is what is needed more than anything else and respect for law has to increase, hate for politicians and the system will do us no good ever. For , we are the ones who voted and elected them. Corruption has to be tackled in many ways and lok pal bill might in all idealness, would form a very small part in ensuing eradication of corruption.
Finally, its disheartening to see the tactics adopted by young Indians to go on the web platform and do trash talk, instead of doing their bit to stay clean themselves for thats what will make India Clean, more than any bill that can ever be formed. Lack of social knowledge, is so obvious amongst many a educated youth in India, who thinks trashing the government means doing their bit and they can go back home and download mp3s from the Internet,watch movies on line, pay bribe when caught at the traffic signal and find all possible means to evade tax.
We have enough laws to deal with corruption and what is needed is the desire to abide them and stay truthful to the country.
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