प्रश्नों का बुलबुला

प्रिय अन्ना हजारे एवं सहकर्मीयों ,
पिछले लम्बे समय से हमारे काबिल नेताओं के विरुद्ध आपके द्वारा किये गए अनुष्ठान को मैंने कई अन्य लोगों की तरह देखा और कुछ सीमा तक उसमे भागीदार भी बना | किन्तु इन अब मेरे अन्तः मन में आपके लिए चंद प्रश्न बुलबुला रहे है | क्यूँ आप-हम इन बेचारे निर्गुणी नेताओं के पीछे पड़े है ? सिर्फ इस लिए की यह लोग भ्रष्टाचार करने में लिप्त है ? अरे भाई , दुनिया में इतने लोग है, हर इन्सान के पास करने को कुछ न कुछ काम तो होना चाहिए न ? कोई रिक्शा चलाता है , कोई नौकरी करता है , कोई व्यापार करता है वैसे ही हमारे नेता बेचारे " भ्रष्टाचार" करते है | अब यह भी न करे तो आप और हम ही लोग कहेंगे की हमारे नेता कामचोर है ,कुछ नहीं करते , बेचारों का तो दोनों की तरफ मरण ही हुआ ना ? अच्छा एक बात बए , आप हम लोग इतनी मेहनत करके, दिन- रात काम करके ५ पैसे कमाते है और उससे हम इन्हें "कर" दे सके ताकि इन बेचारों का पेट पल सके , इनके छोटे-मोटे स्विस बैंक के खाते भरे जा सके, इन बेचारों के बच्चे किसी गए-गुज़ारे १स्त वर्ल्ड में पढ़ सके जबकि हम आम आदमी के बड़े- बड़े PF खाते होते है, हर आम आदमी के बच्चे इतनी शान से बरगद के पेड़ के नीचे आलिशान सरकारी विधायाला में पढ़ते है , इसके सिवा और माँगा क्या इन महान सेवको ने हमसे जो हमने सर पर आसमान उठा लिया |
अच्छा चलिए माना की हमारे नेताओं ले लिए आप यह अनशन नहीं छोड़ सकते , तो ज़रा हमारे देश के (तथाकथित) बुद्धिजीवियों के लिए ही यह अनशन बंद कर दीजिये | वो लोग बेचारे वातानाकूलित कक्षों में बैठकर यह कहते है की "एक आदमी इस तरह सरकार को धमका नहीं सकत " सही कहते है वो भी , आप अकेले ही तो हो , बाकी वो १-२ लाख लोग to ऐसे ही चने खाने आते है आपके साथ, अपना सारा धंदा-पानी छोड़ कर | लेकिन इन बुद्धिजीवियों को क्या पता , यह एक बार बंद कमरे से बहार निकले तोह इन्हें पता चले | इनका यह भी कहना हिया है की अगर अन्ना को वाकई कुछ बदलाव लाना है तो वोह चुनाव में खड़े हो जाये और फिर कोई भी बिल पास करे , सच ही तो है कल को जब इन लोगों के घर बाहर कचरा जमा हो जायेगा तोह यह लोग नगर पालिका में शिकायत नहीं करेनेगे, ये सीधे नगर पालिका के चुनाव में खड़े हो होंगे क्यूंकि इन्हें कुछ बदलाव लाना होगा और वैसे भी सभी सीधे सादे , भले और निर्दोष लोग ही तो चुनाव जीतते है यह तोह हम सभी जानते है |


आपका हितेषी,
( पका ) आम आदमी

ohh...you dont like Rahman !

While going thru all the headlines on corruption/black money/fasts, i happened to tune in to a radio and listen "tere bina" from guru and this song brought back one of the age old questions to my mind. "Why did not A R Rahman ever care to learn Hindi ?".It is just because i have been curious to know what different magic his voice and especially his music could have created had this been true. I know am upsetting loads of Rahman fans here, but here is what i feel.Take this song,"tere bina(Guru)"(and several others sung by Rahman), in certain sections of the song sung by Rahman one finds the lyrics to be quite unclear, by the time you figure out what he sung, song is actually all over and you end up hoping Rahman could have got better with the pronunciation . And its not that singers from non-hindi regions have not done well, in fact most successful Hindi singers are from non-hindi speaking native region ranging from from manna dey, kishore kumar ganguli to SPB, kumar sanu, shreya ghosal and so on.Why cant words of Rahman have such clarity of words is a question to me.
As a music director, one should be very aware of what the individual words mean, so that you can do justice to at least the most precious words and this is something which easily can be seen lacking in Rahman's songs where filler words play important role. Take the song for instance "jai ho", i would say "aja aja jind shamiyane ke tale, aaja zari wale neele aasman ke tale" is a marvellous piece by the ace lyricist Gulzarji, but after Rahman worked with the song, all we hear is "jai ho" dominating the song which actually is just a filler ! I guess Gulzarji may not be the happiest soul with treatment. Some people might argue , if Sonu and Shreya can sing in tamil movies why not same with Rahman. my answer would be simple , there is a difference between a singer and a composer.As a singer you more need to pronunce and sound well but as music director you need to understand the lyrics. Rahman has been very creative with his compotions and be it the voice of water drops in "taal se taal miila" , tweeting of birds in "saathiya" or the sound of calling birds in "genda phool" he has very precisely and beautifully placed the relevent sound in his music. He has been different and he has been innovative. But i believe a very nice music can always provide a nice "feel" to song but its always the lyrics that form the "soul" , if you cant do justice to the lyrics, there always shall be something missing !!!!

A cricketing Idol , From a different Perspective

"Sehwag got to 6000 in 123 innings, Bradman did it in 68 innings,Tendulkar got there in 120 innings" is what a famous cricketing website had to say after Virendar Sehwag scored his 6000th run in the test cricket.This statement can lead to an interesting discussion about comparing the cricketers from different times. One often tends to compare sportsperson across time line, but often when this happens , one keeps the older ones as Demigod and goes overboard saying they are incomparable(in this case , Don Bradman) which most of the times may not be true (or at least, i believe so).Lets consider Don Bradman, he was surely of the best cricketers the game has ever seen but positioning him as an idol who is beyond all sorts of comparisons, is something one must refrain from doing. The game evolves with time,and so the players and hence such an assumption becomes meaningless .
Take for instance , the above case where 6000 runs of Sehwag, Sachin and Bradman are compared.To reach his 6000 runs, Sehwag played against 9 different International teams in 10 different countries, all of them offering different conditions in terms of pitch, climate, crowds etc whereas Bradman in whole of his international career had played (in only 2 countries ) against 4 teams , including the-then-Indian-team whose bowlers were elated at the mere thought having got to bowl against Bradman (very similar to the Namibian players who after a world cup match in 2003 rushed to shaoib akhtar to get his autograph ).What i would like to point out is that most teams in their home conditions are pretty tough to play against, something Bradman never got to do.
One may boast of better sports accessories(bats, helmets, guards and other stuffs) and technology in the present scenario, but let us put it this way; as the game has evolved, the bowlers have devised new techniques, fielding teams have come up with better strategies than before,better technology has led to lesser (or should i say rare) "doubtful benefits" which needless to say , used to go in favor of the batsman.
Australian dominance in world cricket is something that has always added to greatness to the Aussie batsmen(read on to find why this is being talked about here). An important factor , often overlooked towards same is role of Australian media who are a vital ingredient in making the Aussie recipe the best in world.They leave no stone unturned to portray the Aussie players as the best of the lot and they don't mind goin overboard with it.One (in)famous example is from the recent Indian tour to Australia where the Australian broadcasters would often replay a wrong decision going against Australia but never did replay one going in favor of them, something very difficult to find in other parts of world.Don being an Aussie has surely been of help to him in this respect.
I too believe that Bradman was a Great Great batsman but i often think that if we keep a frame of reference , which makes us believe no batsman can ever be as good as (or better than) him(Bradman) , its time to look back at our frame of reference and ask "is it correct?"

This is my first attempt towards writing a blog. Please drop in your valuable comments.