Monday, October 31, 2016

Bhojpuri Nirguni Eargasm




Of my favorite (and among the few) imports from Bihar, is this songtrack. It was serendipitous to be traveling with a local taxi guy with a penchant for "Nirguni" tracks, compiled on a pen drive, the first of those being this one. As we rolled out of some city in Bihar each morning, amidst a panic set in because of the uncertainties and delays, this track would accompany the exit, and try to nudge in a calm.


It grew on me quickly. Being uneducated in Bhojpuri, I got the song in tiny bits. Or, rather, tiny "hits". First to hit me was the powerful vocals - distinct, melodic, almost unreal. Next to hit was the references to a "Baheliya" (bird trappers) and a "Maina" (the Indian Mynah, starling bird) - a theme that alluded to good songwriting. Slowly, more lines of the song unraveled in understanding, and by the end of the week-long visit through Bihar, I was sold on the song, frantically looking to copy the track. On being told that it belonged to a particular genre of music known as "Nirguni" I knew the song would reveal more, and it did!

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Shrushti Rahasyam

Just few minutes back I finished watching a movie, one after a long while. Shrushti Rahasyam, a Tamil movie with an outlandish creation theory concept. The movie is as entertaining as any Bollywood flicks, despite doing away with much dialog. There are so obvious themes that one can sit without thinking caps on.

The story has two central characters - Adam and Eve. There's also Judith, the forgotten part of the mythology, who was the first consort with Adam, and who later left Adam because she wanted to remain independent - which is when God (shown as a weirdly-attired coterie) created Eve, made from Adam's rib, who Adam could literally feel like owning, and did.

The movie has Adam and Eve walking around enjoying the strange and odd world in their primitive ways of interaction. Their language is just sounds. Their clothes are minimal. The snake makes them commit sin, and they are issued clothing since they have also been injected with shame and guilt over their bodies. They also unknowingly make a baby.



The movie has a Baraka-esque sequence to end with, showing how world is crowded with humans who are hoarding and consuming its resources.

Monday, October 17, 2016

Assorting outdoor stuff

58 hours later - I am back in the man cave, in home #2. AutoSanta has brought me loads of things - notably, gizmos - to indulge in, which I immediately start with after a brush and a meal. My life will be surrendered to gizmos over the coming week. That, and tapes, for now I have a sick tape collection, accumulated over September month - two kinds of duct tape, cloth tape, rubber tape, kinesio tape, electrical tape, and thin-foil tape - a month-long overzealous pursuit of tapes comes to an end, hurrah!

Christen this spirit Gizmo Baba and let him wander trying out the gizmos. The tape streak could be considered a subset of a survivalist streak, that has led to find and procuring myriad items. Latest to be tried out were a coupla headlamps - a BD and a V. Shortly before, a coupla multitools, both very zeitgeisty - the GD and the LM. And before those, the porta-speakers. Then the last week a coupla survival whistles, a space blanket, flourescent paracord, a chainsaw, dry bags, and a coupla buffs. Assortement is the name of the game, or so it seems.

Soon I shall burden myself with reviewing things formally. Distractions overboard!

Saturday, October 15, 2016

polygamy me not

More Americans approve of suicide than polygamy. That is a curious fact, curious for the high support for polygamy, that is. Who would think on these lines to the point of agreeing? I dunno, maybe people who realize it isn't what they will ever do, but surely see others doing/acting upon - like a silly sexual fantasy.

For one, there are too many people involved. Even a mutuality - ie two people legally joined (state which is called being married) - is hectic. To add more will distort / average down the nature of any internal relationship. Does one enter polygamy through monogamy, or is there an option to straightaway get into a polygamous arrangement?

Second, that polygamy will hole its participants. They will have a polygamous family to take care of, and all their resources will be focused towards it. How is everybody to contribute equally in such an arrangement? Do marital unions eventually evolve into packs, that think and act much for their behalf?

Another one, that what kind of polygamy should be in permissible? - men and many women, or woman and many men, or a mix men and women? Can one enter a men-only (or woman-only) polygamy? Is bisexuality recognized as such in a polygamy? How will parentage be determined, in the case multiple men are part?

A marriage of two sometimes ends up in a mess. A marriage of many will end up more so. The laws of separation will need an elaborate discussion. If one separates do all separate? Can a person stay legally joined with half but divorced from the other half of her polygamous group? What about alimony? What about custodianship of children?

And if it does come about, what will happen to the low-status wo/men who already have a hard time finding a partner? The best hoard partners while the lesser enter dejection and resort to destructive nihilistic negating acts?

Thursday, October 13, 2016

Slow surge of conscious

YOU LOVE
to lie
to hide
to deny
to show kinship with the inanimate.

YOU LIKE
to leap
to shout
to shake
to show what you take to break.

YOU PRETEND
to like what you get
to love what you find
to sink in the quicksand of time
to crawl out a creature benign
to hold a goblet of fine wine
to put it against the lips and feel divine
to recall the days when thee were thine.

O' H


We could only meet shortly, but I hope the roads will take me back to you again. The little I came to know about you made me want to know you more. Your multi-dimensionality will be my itch for a while - the images of natural world that abounds in you, as well as that of soldiers walking with mine detectors, both facets will stick fast.

Monday, October 10, 2016

Gangey

The way she moves, makes my body quiver with delight and frenzy. The muse, the lover, the artist, the mother. The strands of her hair glisten in the wind, and dance aflutter, pulling me deeper into herself. The sun kisses her cheeks and imparts them a golden tinge, and the rays bounce over her skin to deflect some radiance on me, the cursed one, also ironically the lucky one. Her thoughts I can read, the goosebumps on her skin I can feel; they are a bigger intoxication than anything that will come to follow in the day.
Her visage I can trace in fine detail on this morning. Her essence I try to understand better. Her calm and her rage, both can be felt in palpable terms now that I am closer to her than ever before.

She sways to the breeze from the east,
she talks to the clouds crowding in the sky awestruck,
she teases each tree around,
she glances over me briefly
and I live the delusion that everything is found.

Saturday, October 01, 2016

Her Alchemy

The way she lies,
the way she denies,
its celestially perfect -
like made with the suns.

Her breath that snakes
over my skin,
and settles like a snowflake,
cold and melting -
like a May at Rohtang.

A feeling that hits once
and lingers forever.
A glimmer that shines once
and erases never.
A consecration to the mortals,
a curse to the divine -
once you leave empty
only then you find.