Long Story Short.....

Thanks to Harsh Mankodi for sparking this train of thought. That is all the credit he is going to get for now....:P

Turning magnet coils,
Antennas and transmission lines
A mess of metal and charge
Long story short
Mechanize

Mammoth mass of sound
Feet stomping the ground
A mess of necessity and obligations
Long Story Short
Survival

Crawlings of a ink
Color, paper and words sink
A mess of emotions to convey
Long story short
Convey

Words spearing through the ether
Heard sometimes or the deaf ear
Distance of said and done
Long story short
Schism

Million nerves run amok
Powering the train of thought
Decisions Black, white and grey
Long Story short
Rationalize

The intangibles
Smiles, tears and quibbles
What you don't see is more than what you get
Long Story short
Humanize.

Celestial Again....

Amongst the falling angels,
My head floats in venomous ecstasy
Celestial, this feeling of flight
Amongst the stars, I feel alive

These waves carry me over
A melting frenzy of sound
Envelopes your senses
Contraptions of illusion fall away

Feel the buzz of clarity
Flooding my veins with fueled intent
that dull thudding hammer in my head
Wields a pile driver now

I lose my mind
and find it all
to see the undiscovered, ever more
This light, celestial,shines on me
I close my eyes
and see it all,
And let it guide me, wherever now
Towards the light, celestial, I reach.

Thanks to the song "Celestial" by Skyharbor for setting this lyric up........anyone who knows half a thing about music, should listen to this track. It is that phenomenal! Keshav Dhar, Dan Tompkins, Vishal J Singh and last but not the least, the might Marty Friedman.....hats off folks! Here, give it a listen.....

Celestial by Skyharbor

Transcendental

I have always heard myths about music. Music can transport you to another world. Music can touch your soul. Music can dissolve all the harshness around you. Music can bring tears to your eyes.

And so I started looking for this wonderful thing called music. This anecdotal elixir from some universe that was so far flung from the world I was in. This "art" that a layman like me could understand and appreciate.

So after some years of looking for this music, going through all the transitions of listening to new sounds, from pop to rock to metal to jazz to fusion, there happened a moment. This small, slice of time, was as simple as it could get and as spiritual as it could be.

Mohan, from the Indian rock band Agnee, singing "Sadho Re" strumming an acoustic guitar. That is it. For all the  wizardry in music, this little piece of music brought tears to my eyes while making me aware of my own mortal being. And the immortality of actions that leaves a trail of your being.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14548298/Sadho%20Re%20Acoustic.mp3

Before listening to this, I was a fan. Now, I am a devotee.

Cowardice or Sensibility....

I don't know if I should call this a rant or something else. Maybe I just want to think out loud.

After 9/11, the war on terror began in right earnest. However dumb of a Republican George Bush may be, there is one thing about him that is almost universally true. He was out for revenge. He may call it justice, getting even, whatever. But it was plain revenge. He was determined to beat the living shit out of the Talibaan and the Al-Qaeda, even though he was often confused who was who and who was the not. He ran the war for almost 8 years and after he quit, the armed forces of the USA did get that old cunt Osama. But let us not forget where it all began. He was the face of his country, a President hell bent on bringing criminal to some sort of justice.

I turn to most heinous attacks on India, perpetrated by fundamentalist assholes (no one is going to flag  me for being profane about terrorists.......hmmmm), lets say 26/11. And I think, why did my Prime Minister never do anything, and let me be clear, anything at all, that at least at face value, assured the populace that something was being done. Why, if we knew that the handlers were in Pakistan , which is a fact, then did we not send the Pakistani embassy packing just to make a point? Or something, to make clear, that the cocksuckers who committed those acts will get what they deserve? In the words of Tom Morello, why did our leaders not grow a pair of titanium balls and just say, OK, this is our army, and we are going to fuck someone up? Why did we not make a clear stand on anything? Is death count, just like any other human statistic that we do not care about?

I know that we are a country that believes in peace and harmony and I believe in those ideals more than anybody else. But where justice is to be served, it should be. Peaceful and harmonious should not be made synonymous with cowardice. There is a very clear distinction between those, but with the PM and his cronies, it comes dangerously close to meaning the same.

We wait for Pakistan to finish their investigation. For US with give us some face time with David Headley. To equip our armed forces and bring them at par with the best. To strengthen our police agencies and grass roots mechanisms to prevent something like this from happening again. Don't tell me that something was done, because 3 months after 26/11, metal detectors at CST were not working. So, shut the fuck up.

The eternal optimist in me is on the verge of being frantically disemboweled in the face of growing cynicism about the ability of our leaders to lead in the first place. And in this time of crisis, if there is a brewing sense of unrest and borderline  anarchy present in the country, I think I know why.

As much as I have tried to scratch my head in the search for an answer, I have not been able to come up with one. Maybe someone else can. 

Musical Wish List

I have seen some of my favourite bands in action and will continue to do so. But there are some that just continue to elude me! Here is a list of bands that I want to see live before I become incapable of doing so :

Lamb Of God
Meshuggah
Tool
Dream Theater
Rammstein
Motherjane
Demonic Resurrection
Skyharbor
Amogh Symphony - As and when they do go live!
Undying Inc
Rage Against the Machine
System of A Down
Animals as Leaders
Textures
Bhayanak Maut
Providence

And last but not the least, it won't hurt to watch another live show from

Metallica!!!!!

Right to be free.....

Let me post this first up,

"It is to be noted that section 69 of the Act, which is an exception to the general rule of maintenance of privacy and secrecy of the information, provides that where the Government is satisfied that it is necessary in the interest of:

• the sovereignty or integrity of India,
• defence of India,
• security of the State,
• friendly relations with foreign States or
• public order or
• for preventing incitement to the commission of any cognizable offence relating to above or
• for investigation of any offence,

it may by order, direct any agency of the appropriate Government to intercept, monitor or decrypt or cause to be intercepted or monitored or decrypted any information generated, transmitted, received or stored in any computer resource. This section empowers the Government to intercept, monitor or decrypt any information including information of personal nature in any computer resource."

For the full article and more on the Information Technology Act, here is the link:
 http://www.mondaq.com/x/133160/Privacy/Data+Protection+Laws+In+India


Now as said above, when I demean or in simpler terms, talk shit about Digvijay Singh or Kapil Sibal, I do not tick any of the above boxes. These faggots are a meagre joke on the face of Indian politics among many other names that I will not bother to name. Mr. Sibal, the only visible thing that I have to be thankful to you for, is the $35 tablet PC (which you DID NOT CREATE, so stop taking credit for it) and the list, I think ends there. So when you talk about taking away my freedom to criticize you on my blog or FB profile or Twitter account, I think it is OK that I swear and curse.

And with the whole Caravan article about Arindham Chaudhari and the brouhaha that came in the wake of that, tell me that the Information Technology Act cannot be used to subdue Freedom of Speech and be misused to harass innocent people.  In that case, the article cited facts and was merely a critical essay. And that pony tailed fuckface had it thrown off the web in India. Well, not entirely, though. It can still be found on  millions of mirror sites. Go Google! And if you want to refute this, please   try to apologize to Gaurav Sabnis and try Arindham for wasting the Courts' time. I would really not be surprised if my family gets a summons because of this.

So, dear Mr Kapil Sibal sir, go fuck yourself in the ass. I might have respected you in the past, but you just made my shit list, which isn't saying much because you are next to Arindham Chaudhari and Mayawati. And also because I cannot do jack shit about either of you. But still, go anal on yourself. 

Ad Memoriam

Lot has been said and written and done.I do not share their personal loss, but I do share their anger. And the helplessness. In remembrance, of each soul that was touched by the Darkness on 3rd December 1984.

Nobody answers for their soul
And nobody begs anymore
Justice was denied
and denied again
Their souls will haunt
the air of our Land
Just like the lethal air,
that touched them to death.
In the silent dead of the night,
The Reaper struck at his stealthiest
And rode back with huge bounty
And then played his violin
to the wails and cries
that wafted in from Earth.
Condemned in life
and damned in death
Yearning for salvation
With rotting flowers on their wreath.
These souls watch on,
as we humans despair
Under the strains of the violin
to the dark legacy that they bequeath.

Corrosion of Conformity

Free will left to its own devices can take to one of many paths and make of it what it can. Conformity, on the other hand, works in weirder ways. Coercion, even more so. The best analogy, for geeks, would be Faraday's Law of Induction. That a dynamic electric field causes another conductor in the vicinity to start conducting current and produce a field that opposes the very field that created it.

Corrosion of Conformity, apart from being the name of a great band, is also the result of the very Conformity that caused it in the first place. Or how else do you think, a kid growing up in a small town, brought up in old family values, comes to find heavy metal as a tool of rebellion and non-coercion. What else does explain the stubbornness that helps the kid summon up the courage to refuse and resist? To resist from praying in a temple of pretend and refuse from uttering the very prayers that have long been held sacred?

There will always be people who tell you what to do and how you should behave and carry yourself. But, as I have already said, free will is best left to its own devices. One time or the other, you will have to start harnessing your own intelligence, if any. Rebellion is all well and good, but without free will, it is just some smoke with no mirrors. 

Rock N' Roll Hall of Shame.......

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way, influenced the music industry through the genre of rock music. Thank you Wikipedia

Now, I know rock music. And this is definitely not a boast. People who know me will testify to this fact. So, my ADHD ridden brain is in complete shambles when it tries to comprehend the reasons over why Metallica is in the Hall of Fame and Deep Purple is not? Absolutely no disrespect to Metallica, they being my favourite band of all time, but I do not think pure common sense, logic and love of the music are at play here.

I want somebody to explain to me the reason why the greatest prog rock trio of all time, Rush, has not yet been nominated. Who else is left to be influenced by them? Rebecca Black maybe, going by her absolute lack of musical talent and sensibility.

Maybe some of the following bands make more sense to you as the ones to be nominated:

Kiss
Motorhead
Judas Priest
Iron Maiden
Cheap Trick
Journey
Ronnie James Dio

I don't even feel like cursing and being profane here. It's not worth it. Rock is kept alive by its fans and those very fans have no say into who goes into the Hall of Fame. Sad but true.

Einstein and the Worlds Most Famous Equation

One documentary that every man of science should see. The history and chain of events that leads to the most famous equation that is known to mankind. Presented in a very easy going way with real life characters and their stories as people and with enthralling narration, it will make you feel grateful for everything that you owe to science. Which is most things in life. Please do check it out.


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0476209/

On the same topic, there is something horribly wrong with the world when the first result for the word "Einstein" is Einstein Bros and Bagels.