Something which lifts you heart...

Do you have a piece of music in your life to which you can take refuge in when you sad, depressed or plain bored with life? Something, which you can listen to infinite number of times? Not some song, but just a piece of music?
Luckily I do and this piece of music came to my life through an e card sent by a friend long back. The first time I opened this e card I was not expecting much, just a wish from a friend. Casually while doing a million other things I listened to the music. But soon after it started playing, I stopped everything I was doing and sat still listening to it with all my heart. The music just flowed around me like cool water and it kept swirling round and round and by the time it ended I was mesmerized. Listening to the music made me feel very special. This music has the capacity to lift me up from my mundane surroundings and transport me to this magical world of clouds and greenery, maybe on the peak some lonely hill track.
Just to make sure that I was not imagining the whole effect I listened to this music again, and yet again it had the same effect on me. Whenever I listen to it I cannot help feeling enthralled. But more importantly it just lifts my mood and makes me feel good about my life and myself. I have long lost touch with the friend who had sent it to me; I don’t even know whether the long lost friend knows how much this music has contributed in my life. I will always treasure this music in my life.
If you have time, please just listen to this. You will realize what I am talking about-- http://www.riversongs.com/flas1/roses.html

Life in JNU continues...

Another JNU dairy written on 6th May 2003.
A few days back there was warden check in the hostel. Ever since I joined JNU I have been warned about this warden check. Usually there is one warden check every semester. Usually JNU hostels are the most liberal places, quiet a shock when you come hearing about miserable hostels with in times and out times. Each hostels have four wardens, but they never bother you. No one checks when you are coming or going or for that matter where or with whom. When I initially joined I used to feel really uncomfortable being so unaccounatable but then freedom grows on you.
Anyways to get back to the warden check, 4 wardens who split up in two groups and go to two wings; the process usually starts at 4 in the morning. I was alone in my room that day and when they knocked at around 4.30 in the morning I thought there was burglary or something in that line going on. Anyways after some sharp persistent knocks I had to open up, they took pity on my timid and perplexed state and one of the wardens said, “hi there we are your wardens, don’t be afraid and let us check your room.” Usually warden check in jnu hostels in something of an event. The next day the whole hostel was agog as to how the wardens behaved with them, some senior girl was pissed off cos the warden had commented seeing computer and air cooler in her room that “ you live in quiet a luxury”. Another girl was rather vocal cos the warden had not said” May I check your room” or something of that line. How dare they not say please?
But the real fun takes place in the boys’ hostel where usually in rooms meant for two 4/5 people stay. The boys lock their doors from outside; sometimes they jump over the verandas (usually each hostel room is accompanied by a small veranda). Just imagine at around 4/5 in the morning when in delhi unlike cal it is pitch dark, boys silently jumping over verandas in 2nd/3rd floors. Once a warden who is an ex jnuite, and probably aware of all that goes on, instead of passing by a room which was locked from outside, got hold of a chair and there is a glass partition on top of our doors, peeped through that. He saw about 20 boys crouching all over the room. He then demanded they open up and there was a lot of mess. The boys, who have their girlfriends staying over, usually pay the fine when the warden checks start so as to save the embarrassment all around. There have even been instances when the girls have gone and fought with the wardens as to why they have to pay fine for staying with their boy friends.

পয়লা বৈশাখ/ নববর্ষ

Poila Boishakh (Bengali: পহেলা বৈশাখ Pôhela Boishakh or পয়লা বৈশাখ Pôela Boishakh) is the first day of the Bangla Calendar. Poila Boishakh is also known as Nôbobôrsho (নববর্ষ), or Bengali New Year, as it is the first day of the first month of Boishakh in the Bengali calendar. This day is a very festive time for Bengalis. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pohela_Baishakh)
today is the bengali new year -- 'poila baishak' . today according to the bengali traditional hindu calender we start the year 1415.
am in a rather nostalgic mood. today is a usual working day for me. but my heart is elsewhere. i wish i could be home with my parents and brother and all other near and dear ones. but alas i am all grown up now and have to sit on my desk and at least pretend to work. ok musings later. let me give a quick rundown on how as a kid i remember poila boishak being celebrated at home.
i remember the first thing that my parents used to say was that "today no fights, no tantrums, no sulks, cos if you behave badly today, you have to spend the rest of the year doing that only".
it was such a foolish idea yet we used to follow it so diligently, on 'poila baishak' we used to pray to god, drink milk like good children and be nice and behave properly.
i remember getting up early in excitement cos poila baishak was one occassion when we used to get new clothes apart from durga pujo. there used to be a pujo at home, then go touch the feet of all elders. ma generally used to cook some delicacy or the other like 'polao' (traditional bengali sweet rice) and 'kosha mangsho' (mutton) or 'rui macher kalia' (rohu fish curry) and of course some kind of desert like 'payas'.
in the evenings we used to go to the 'choroker mela' ( spring fair) which is held generally every year at this time. now choroker mela was a very interesting event. my brother and i, we loved going there cos dad always used to pamper us no end there. i remember buying handfull of glass bangles, terracotta toys, my brother used to go for musical instruments which make an awful lot of noise. usually some cousins allways used to accompany us. oh what a lovely time we had getting on those merry-go-rounds, eating 'telebhaja' (pakodas).
then we used to go visit some relatives or freinds and have nice dinner either there or at home.
before long poila baishak used to be over. i remember that as a kid before going to bed we used to do a check whether we have been on our perfect behaviour or not. otherwise there was a danger that whatever wrong we had done would get repeated throughout the year.
poila boishak always used to be the harbinger of mangoes. the mangoes before poila baishak never taste as good as those which come after the new year. that was another eeason why we used to wait for poila baishak with so much excitement.
now we are all grown up, busy in our lives, now we remember poila baishak when someone reminds us. then to commemorate the day we go to some fancy resturant for lunch or dinner. but somehow the innocence and the fun of those days can never be recaptured.
in words of rabindranath
'purano shey diner kotha
bhulbi kire hai'
(how can you forget those old days)
i am sure there is a better and a proper translation of this song, but right now i am in a writing mood and cant be bothered with translations.
inconvinience if any is deeply regretted.
maybe i would never spend poila baishak like i used to spend it in my childhood. but the memory would always be there with me.

a thousands thoughts...

Do thousand different thoughts and emotions ever flock your mind and heart at the same time? And then before you can actually pin one of them down to ponder over it, they all disappear in a rush just like the way they came? Do you feel tired and deflated worrying that all the great thoughts and ideas are lost forever? In fact this reminds me of the waves in seashore—they come splashing and before you realize they just withdraw back again. This is something, which keeps happening to me a lot now days. I keep having new ideas only for them to disappear. It was one of the primary reasons why I started writing this blog—to pin and pen my thoughts down firmly so that they do not escape. Like for example whenever I hear this song ‘Baanwra Man Dekhne Chala Ek Sapna’ (quoted in my previous posting) I feel so many different emotions yet by the time I get to the stage of deciphering them they have all receded. And I am left feeling frustrated that I cant hold them long enough to relish them or analyze them. Maybe I am a bit crazy wanting to savor and post mortem my thoughts or maybe I am just a woman. I would like to write my thoughts down so that later I could come back to them and just toy with them. Maybe I could write about them in my blog so that the few of my friends who read my blog can read them. But thoughts are like butterflies—they are never still, fluttering around, refusing to be pinned. Wow in a 300 word write-up I have compared thoughts to sea waves and butterflies. Let me stop before I get too poetic and it all gets out of hand.

Found this song pottering around in google. Google really is a treasure trove and such amazing things keep coming up. Enjoy the poetry and remember the lovely haunting tune…

Baanwra Man Dekhne Chala Ek Sapna (From the movie Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi)

Baanwre se man ki dekho baanwri hain baatein.

Baanwri si dhadhkanein hain baanwri hain saansein

Baanwri si karwaton se nindiya kyon bhaage

Baanwre se nain chahein baanwre jharokhon se baanwre nazaaron to takna.

Baanwri se is jahaan mein baanwra ek saathho

Is sayaani bheed mein bas haathon mein tera haath ho

Baanwri si dhun ho koi baanwra ek raag ho

Baanwre se pair chahein baanwre taraanon ke baanwre se bol pe thirakna.

Baanwra sa ho andhera baanwri khamoshiyaan

Thartharaati lau ho maddham baanwri madhoshiyaan

Baanwra ek ghunghta chahe haule haule bin bataaye

Baanwre se mukhde se sarakna.

Old house...house hunting...finally new house...

The thing is when I initially came to Delhi I used to live an hour away from office near IIT, then I shifted 10 minutes away from office in Lajpatnagar and now I am 6/7 houses from office, next I am planning to shift on top of my office. The terrace looks nice enough to shift in.
It all started when my two flat mates in Lajpatnagar started to fight. The girl in whose name the house was gave an ultimatum that we need to shift. So our (the other flat mate and me) hunt for houses started. We saw about 10 houses in Lajpatnagar. In six month’s time rentals have shot up by three to four thousand rupees. And the houses we saw were all designed like train compartments, with no privacy or sunlight. Looking at the same layout I got confused which is more important for my survival—sunlight or privacy. I was thanking God that She did not necessitate photosynthesis for my survival when that we found one house, which fitted our budget, and also one we liked. But the landlady turned out to be a firm and authoritative lady with fixed ideas of her own regarding how her tenants are going to behave. Beautiful house rejected.
Finally my flat mate found this house just a stone’s throw away from office within our budget, the house is nice and the landlord is not all that nosy. We literally jumped at it. I have a feeling that the last tenants were not even ready to go. But we paid one month’s advance without giving anyone to change their mind about anything.
We shifted last Sunday and even since I have fallen in love with our new terrace. It is beautiful place on the 5th floor of a corner plot. There is a park right in front of us and also on our left hand side. In the evening the breeze just blows you away. Everyday after returning home from office, I just park myself there and it is utter glory.