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I heard about this song via Sepia Mutiny, and I had to write about it.
The song is Laga Reh (keep going) by Shehzad Roy. I am sure Pakistani readers (at last count, there were 2) have seen it — this is for those who haven’t. Watch it right away.
What can I say, the song is superbly done — satire, music, hilarity — it’s all there. I believe Indians share many more issues with Pakistan than is apparent, so this song is as relevant to India — a reason why I’m posting the song.
Music can be used for social causes, but very few artists manage to blend it seamlessly so as to not take away anything from the art form. The basic element of satire is often art, and it is sadly overlooked at times. Mallika Sarabhai attempted something similar at TedIndia and failed miserably. Last checked, Michael Moore was on a downslide. On the other hand, Rabbi Shergill is gifted at it — just listen to Bilqis and Jugni for proof. I don’t know where Shehzad Roy stands in comparison and honestly, I’m hesitant to judge him — because more then being good at it, artists like him and Rabbi Shergill are essential. We don’t have bands like Rage Against The Machine in our countries, but I believe the underground market is huge for blatantly lyrical songs criticizing the system. A friend of mine had once expressed a desire to writing such songs, but I don’t know what the status is (any updates ?).
Oh, and I heard that this song was banned on Pakistani TV, can any of the Pakistani readers confirm this ?
Apologies for the barrage of posts. You asked for it though !
I just received 30-odd invites for Google Wave. If anyone wants an invite, please pass on your Gmail address in the comments section (do not mention your email address in the comment, only where you write your info).
Anyone interested ?
If yes … really ???
Update : I’m out of invites.
I saw this interview of a certain Christopher Caldwell on The Colbert Report recently. Much fun happens when you pit one nutcase against another (Cobert is a faux nutcase, just so you know).
Caldwell has a book out on Islam and its proliferation in Europe. He quotes :
After the 2nd World War, Europe for the first time felt the need to import millions of people from outside of Europe to rebuild. And they expected these workers to go back home when they finished the work of reconstruction .. and they didn’t.
Heh .. like you didn’t see that coming !
If not for anything else, watch the video for this bit :
Caldwell : In France, two-thirds of the Imams are on welfare. There is nothing wrong with being an Imam. But the fact is they have less contact with the wider culture. So they get less Frenchified.
Colbert : You’re saying we should French Fry the Imams. You just said that !
Stephen Colbert at his improv best !
I do wonder how he manages to get these people on his show. Don’t they look up what the show is about ? A classic example is the birther Orly Taitz interview. He totally pwns her, and she doesn’t seem to get it at all !
(Their) god save them !
What happens when you cross a sloppy writing with an over-enthusiastic journalist ?
You get this piece, about the numerous accidents on a certain stretch of the Western Express-highway during full-moon nights.
Presenting some gems :
On full-moon nights, many policemen in the western suburb of Kandivli go mad. Worse, they confirm it.
“There is something mysterious about this part of the highway,” another officer says, despairingly.
“Utter nonsense and poppycock” is how some scientifically-bent policemen — and there are some — debunk the “superstition”
Says a dejected policeman, “As to why …
“On Poornima, Amavasya and Astami days these souls attack people intruding into their jurisdiction.“
“Oh! Really?” ask sceptics in disgust.
Or maybe we have another Dan Brown in the making in our very own backyard, says an excited me in excitement.
You should really read the entire thing.
Turns out that the mysterious ‘Rahul’ whose name came up in the interrogation of a suspected Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorist nabbed in the U.S. is Mahesh Bhatt’s son Rahul Bhatt.
This is what happened when Mahesh Bhatt was asked :
When contacted, Rahul’s father Mahesh Bhatt neither confirmed nor denied that his son had been questioned by the police in connection with the Headley case. He simply said, “This is an issue of national security and not something trivial related to Bollywood. Ask agencies that deal with national security. I will not say anything more.”
If there is a sure sign that all’s not well with the world, it is this.
Mahesh Bhatt declined to speak more ?!?!
This post on the MNS is much lighter.
Do have a quick glance at the 4 MLAs’ profiles who were suspended.
One dug up the cricket pitch when Pakistan was visiting, one wears 2 kgs of gold on himself and one is a “childhood friend of Rahul Mahajan”.
Heh. It’s almost like MNS handpicked its MLAs like the Ocean’s thirteen.
**
I came across this video of Ramesh Wanjale, the one who wears 2 kgs of gold jewellery, thanks to Pushkar S.
Translating for non-Marathi audience : The guy wants to pursue a Ph.D. When asked in what, he replies, Saint Tukaram. The reporter rightly points out that he is a dropout from school, to which the reply is that he plans to start studying seriously from now on — 12th, B.A., M.A. and then Ph.D.
Now that he’s suspended, he’ll get ample of time for studying.
Watch from 4:45.
To be fair, the guy amply knows what he is talking about — I just loved his nonchalant answer that he wants to pursue a Ph.D.
May I recommend PhD Comics to him ?
I don’t have anything new to say about the MNS MLAs attacking a colleague in the Maharashtra assembly and their subsequent suspension, but I think it is unfair on the people of the 4 constituencies who now will have no representation in the State assembly. If people are still bothered about such trivialities, the least they should do is hold their legislators responsible for their unruly conduct.
On the language issue that is the root cause here, I don’t think I should be speaking. Although I consider myself a Maharashtrian (definition here), my views of the MNS have often been misconstrued as the views of an ‘outsider’. As for myself, I can pass off as a Maharashtrian easier than some Marathi friends of mine, but that isn’t pertinent here.
I have come to believe that the only ones speaking or discussing the issue of MNS should be the Marathi people. Far too much noise is made by others for someone to pause and ask a Marathi person about his say in the matter.
Trust me, you’ll see some alarming results. I have come across individuals (in the U.S., ironically) who explicitly or implicitly support the MNS. You’d think that someone who studied at Stanford (purely used as a metric of education, extent of global awareness, ubiquitous ideologies and lack of friends from other universities) would know enough to disagree with the MNS, but I’ve seen exceptions.
When the mainstream media makes this much noise, they are only helping a Marathi person feel more marginalized, thereby aligning him further with the MNS ideology. We don’t really want to know that the MNS MLAs’ kids study in English medium schools. We don’t want the opinions of Mulayam Singh and Lalu Prasad Yadav whenever the MNS raises its head. The average Marathi person needs to hear moderate and liberal views coming from Marathi people, and therein lies the biggest problem — lack of Marathi voices against the MNS ideology. This could imply 2 things :
– the average Marathi person supports the MNS, which is quite rational if you ask me. Why would you not support — or why would you speak out against — someone who claims to be fighting for you ? Heck, tomorrow if there is a TamBram superhero who goes around beating up non-Tamils, I might not speak out against him (Of course, I will. That’s just an example).
– the average Marathi person doesn’t care.
In both these cases, the clout of the MNS will only grow, because you need individuals who disagree with the MNS to halt their march. This needs more Marathi voices to be heard on public forums, blogs, Twitter, Facebook and GTalk status messages. The Marathi voice is silent there.
In a sense, the Marathi person faces the same situation an average Muslim faces in India. You cannot just sit at home and criticize your ilk — we, and it pains me to say so, need to hear your opinion aloud.
Faking News, the Indian fake news website came up with this story some days back :
Unable to attract even a single girl, frustrated man sues Axe.
There were ample of hints suggesting that it was a piece of satire, but someone scooped this story and turned it into an internet rage. So much that Axe had to come up with an official statement regarding the matter :
Axe spokesperson Heather Mitchell sent Asylum this statement:
“We’ve been following the news reports from India where a man was allegedly planning to take legal action for the Axe Effect not working for him personally. We can confirm this is a hoax. In fact the story originated from TheFakingNews.com. While the story is not true, we have to admit that it’s pretty funny and the joke itself is very much in line with our brand tone — playful, with a wink and a nudge. While Axe grooming products can help guys look, smell and feel great, there is only so much we can do; the rest is up to guys themselves.”
The incident is so funny that it should be called funnier, despite have no other object of comparison.
Such incidents have happened in the past where pieces from The Onion, the most popular fake news website, have appeared in mainstream media citing The Onion News Agency as the source. But you’d think Faking News would’ve been easier to spot. Evidently not.
As someone who writes satire, I find it disturbing that we live in times where satire could very well be the voice of a fundamentalist. As one of those Immutable Laws of the Internet goes,
Without a winking smiley or other blatant display of humour, it is impossible to create a parody of fundamentalism that someone won’t mistake for the real thing.
Quite true. I always thought satire should have that element of irrationality or unreal-ism by way of which it makes a point. Turns out, even irrationality is no safeguard against someone mistaking it for a serious opinion. I have myself been a victim of this, often inviting comments either mocking/criticizing my view or agreeing with it wholeheartedly. The latter is way more scarier though.
Given the thin line between fundamentalism and good satire, and the even increasing extremism of fundamentalist ideas, the day might not be far when we both share the same source of information and news.
What is news for me might be comedy for them, and what is news for them, will be my entertainment.
I’m not sure if that’s uber-cool or scary.
The post is more technical than usual ones, please bear with me and read on. Hope you enjoy it as much as other posts.
Thanks to Aditya T., I came across this wonderful video of Bobby McFerrin demonstrating how we have the pentatonic scale imbibed in us :
The pentatonic scale in Western notation is – C D E G A C (Sa re ga pa dha sa)as opposed to the regular heptatonic scale scale – C D E F G A B C (Sa re ga ma pa dha ni sa)
For Indian classical music aficionados, this is the Bhoopali raga of Hindustani and Mohanam of Carnatic music.
As the video will tell, no one is tone deaf or musically challenged. During a recent meeting with some friends, we discussed how humans from different continents with no contact with each other whatsoever ended up with the same 7 notes as the foundation of their respective musics. This seems to point out that we all have the basic knowledge of music. In more technical terms, our brain responds to frequencies that form the musical scale. Even more specifically, our brain is tuned to the logarithmic scale.
First, what is a logarithmic scale.
In our linear scale, the numbers form the sequence 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and so on. This is the scale we interact with on a daily basis.
In a logarithmic scale, the sequence would be 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 and so on. Did you see what happened ? Each number is multiplied by 2 to get the next number. This is a logarithmic scale in base 2. Similarly, you can guess what a logarithmic scale in base 10 would look like. 1, 10, 100, 1000 and so on. Cool ?
Now for those who don’t know, frequencies of musical notes are logarithmic in nature. I’ll try to explain in simple words :
If a standard C note plays at 256 Hz, the next C — the higher C — the C of the next octave — plays at 512 Hz. The next C would be at 1024, 2048 Hz and so on.
From one C to its next higher C, are 12 intervals (C -> C# -> D -> D# -> E -> F -> F# -> G -> G# -> A -> A# -> B -> C)
Given a factor of two between the two extreme C’s, the factor between each individual interval is the 12th root of 2.
So the (frequency of C)*(12th root of 2) will give you the frequency of C#.
Then the (frequency of C#)*(12th root of 2) will give you the frequency of D.
Do this 12 times, you’ll get the higher C, which is exactly twice the lower C.
Update : As Pranav points out in the comments, this means each note is higher than the previous one by 6%. Hope that helps simplify things.
All this to show that the musical scale is logarithmic in frequencies.
During the discussion, a friend mentioned that babies respond to the logarithmic scale naturally. When they are shown a set of objects of increasing sizes (like 1 apple, 2 apples … and so on), they identify changes in the logarithmic scale i.e. the neurons of the brain that fire up on seeing these sets have peaks at logarithmic points (like 1, 2, 4, 8 and so on). I am not sure if the base of the logarithm is 2 or 10 though, I could confirm if someone is interested.
You can always contact me offline for a more practical explanation if none of this made sense.
P.S. : The choice of fruit was incidental.
.. I invite readers to go through the comments section of two of my recent posts – Art and Perception and Fatwa against Vande Mataram. Some interesting discussion has been going on there.
I hope it makes for a good read.
Feel free to jump in with your opinions.
