Thursday, December 16, 2010

Miss my radio

Do you know the feeling when something in your head suddenly tells you to switch on some music? I heard that voice and went to my CD collection (not that I have huge one). Most of the CDs looked old and boring. Some of them were scratched, thanks to the naughty little brat at home. I finally found "Hits of Gulzar" and realized the player isn't working well :( Very frustrating situation right?

I also have not been listening to any good music recently. All I get to listen to is "Kaadhal
Anukkal"on repeat mode or some other Endhiran song. That's what my darling daughter is hooked on to of late (thank god for that...last year it was "Love me love me"from that Salman Khan movie - Wanted! eesh imagine having to bear that on repeat mode")

Or I listen to something on the Internet while working. Some random collections from somewhere. Point is I don't have the time to search, download and listen.Or even search for online players. Being a work from home mom, I need to complete work ASAP to get back to other chores.

I don't enjoy listening to FM Radio anymore. The same old (new) Tamil songs - which can numb your brain sometimes! God spare me from those screeching "RJs" with a sense of humour that is worse than their terrible accents. Chennai Live is good coz it plays English music, which no other channel plays. Aha FM I think is the only channel that plays Hindi songs, that too just f0r an hour in the evenings and that is 'Prime time' at home - finishing work, getting dinner ready, trying to entertain the tired and bored toddler.... sigh...lets talk about that another day! Now don't take me for a snob who only claims to like English and Hindi music. I am very much a Madras ponnu and appreciate anyone from Ilayaraja to AR Rahman to even Imman and Dharan - if the music is good. I would love to have a channel where they play a random selection of English, Hindi and Tamil Music.

The first time I heard commercial FM radio was in Bangalore, way back in 2000-2001. It was so much fun and I got so excited. I remember Radio City would play all kinds of music in the same slot. I remember Radio City played good English music in the mornings when they launched in Chennai, with Craig playing the RJ. Then they thought of this stupid survey and scrapped the morning slot and eventually the late night slot of English music. Oh damn the commercialism! I guess even in Bangalore Radio City now plays a lot of Kannada and some Hindi music! Well, well...

I miss my Vividh Bharati days! I was so hooked to the Radio. I knew the exact timings of each programme. The montage music of Ungal Viruppam meant it was time to leave home just in time to catch the 8:20 A10. Holidays were fun. 1:30 would be Aapki Farmaayish. Lok Sangeeth at 3 was study time or nap time. And then Ungal Viruppam again, 7:00 pm - songs requested by the 'Fauji Bhais", perhaps a play at 8:30 - Hava Mahal and sadly all of the lovely Hindi songs would end at 11 pm with Chaya geet. I would then move over to Madras A station, where they would play lovely Ilayaraja songs - mostly Mike Mohan's senti stuff - I remember my mum, my sis and myself going off to sleep listening to them. Someone would wake up and switch off the radio when they heard the Beeeeeep indicating the close of the station. Can you believe it? Programmes would actually end at a point and the stations would be closed - which is an unimaginable thing during these days of 24 hr radio, 24 hr TV, 24 hr coffee shops and 24 hr what not? (don't people sleep?)

An energetic day would start with a peaceful Vande Mataram followed by sleepy but comforting renderings of Tamil, English, Hindi and Sanskrit news - always in that order if I remember. Yes, there were the Telugu and Urdu news services too! Then there was a programme based on Raagas and their use in Film music, then 15 mins of devotional music.

And oh! there was the Madras B station too - for all the budding 'Western music' fans. We didn't mind the same old songs being repeated every thursday and saturday on Listener's choice - there was Jim Reeves, John Denver sharing space with the up and coming Wham, Michael Jackson and Madonna. "They also played lovely symphonies and pieces in the western classical music programmes. Our innocent eyes sparkled with excitement and wonder at such lovely music being made in some other part of the world.

We even listened to Ceylon Radio on the short wave band. Ah the crackle of the radio, when we have almost reached the exact point when there is the sharpest clarity! How exciting that would be! I even remember liking this Arabic Radio station (so we thought) that played such exotic sounding stuff.

Agenda for the week: Get music player fixed - particularly the radio!

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Social networking or networking between I,me and myself?

How many you have felt depressed after a session of Facebook? I am sure there are a lot of you around. I have been on Facebook for almost an year now and I have felt that way more than once. I am not ashamed about lying about me true feelings.

Facebook, Orkut and the likes are said to be 'social networking sites' but I see them as more of a space for advertising personal triumphs. Wow! look at me...i'm having such a great time with my family. wow! look at me, I am excelling at work! wow! look at me..I'm having a dream holiday. Wow look at me I have found happiness in greener pastures...look at you still rotting in the same place where I left you!!!
I just cannot get over status messages that go "having a fantastic weekend with hubby, baby and dog". I've tried to imitate such messages too but haven't been very successful.

Well, great! Good for you my dear friend - I'm happy that you are happy. What's the social networking about then if you are so obsessed with your self? Don't know...the purpose and meanings of things perhaps evolve and change with time.

See blogging is a different thing - I have seen Blogs being put to great use to share thoughts and ideas. But I am yet to figure out what this FB is all about. No. I have no plans of quitting right now.

Another thing I feel about FB is that you search and search for a dear long lost friend and even find them on FB. And then what do you do with them? You ask them their whereabouts, family, profession etc and you give them all your info. Then what happens? Can any one shed light on this? Maybe I am ignorant about how effectively one can use FB.

Surgical Strike

"Just imagine", they said, "how free you are going to be." Everybody pep-talked me. "You are not sick. You are only...