Musically Sad :: Toshi gets Eliminated in Star Voice Of India

I am sad, shocked and speechless. I hate this voting concept of selecting winners. I dont want to call the audience stupid but I never wanted to see this happen. The best singer getting voted out. Yes, that is what happened tonight in the Star Voice of India.

I am not a big TV fan. I watch couple of music programs and Star Voice of India is one. I throughly enjoyed the quality of certain voices namely Toshi, Abhaas, Irfan and Priyani.

Today, to my utter surprise, Aabhaas and Toshi were in the danger zone of eliminated. What a shame. Finally that happened which I never wanted and a class voice got eliminated and that was Toshi.

It was a very emotional moment I must say. Toshi comes from a very struggling background and he could not control his tears. He at one moment also said "Main uss zindagi mein nahin jaanaa chaahtaa". I wonder how much motivation he had towards this event with the hope of getting something out of this event. And he deserved it too.

It was one touching event today. Abhijit could not control his emotions too. The organizer was feeling shameful. And I was feeling bad to see this awesome voice getting eliminated.

Toshi was the guy whose singing, Jagjit Singh commented, was better than the original.

Watch this video of "Tune Kya Kar Daala Mar Gayee Main ...." sung by Toshi when he literally set the stage on fire and this was when Jagjit Singh was the chief guest.

Toshi Singing Tune Kya Kar Daala (Singer No. 1 in the scroll list on the side)

Also listen to when he sang "Kaho Na Kaho". That was fabulous.

Toshi Singing Tune Kya Kar Daala (Singer No. 34 in the scroll list on the side)


What a treat he was to listen to. He was the Real Voice of India. I wish, irrespective of losing it, we will hear his voice in future songs.

I am really sad to be not hearing him in the next episode.

Update : Someone has created a petition online to bring Toshi back. A talent like him deserves this.

Petition to Bring Toshi Back

पुकार

यह धरती तड़प रही है
इसकी र्क्षा कर भगवान्
पापों से अपिवत्र हो गयी
इसको पिव्त्र कर भगवान्
मार काट फैले हुये हैं
ला दे तू शांति भगवान्
जो नारी देवी है
उसकी इज़्ज़त नही रही है यहाँ
अन्याय का राज्य फैला हुआ है
कौन लाएगा न्याय यहाँ
भूक प्यास से तड़प रही है
तेरी यह प्यारी संतान
जीं ना सके तो दे देती है
अपनी यह बहुमूल्य जान
जब तू भेजे इस धरती पर
मत भेज केवल तड़पने को
थोडी सी खुशियाँ भी दे दे
इन बेसहारे दुखियारों को
शक्ती दे इनको ताकी
लड़ सके यह अन्याय के विरूद्ध
शक्ती दे इनको ताकी
पा सके अपने अधिकार
बुद्धी दे इनको जिससे
परख सके यह सही गलत
बुद्धी दे इनको ताकी
सुधार सके यह अपनी जगत

-- Sastry (Written sometime in 1999)

P.S: Typical Transliteration issues.

Memories with the Rains

Heavy rains always have been my favorite. They bring back awesome memories from the past. I just feel like just sit and keep watching the heavy downpour that the clouds are doing on earth.
After a long time, yesterday Bangalore saw some heavy rain. Dark clouds already gave an indication on how much water there is on hold. There used to be a time you would crave for so much rain so you can get drenched in it. But now I feel worried about getting drenched thinking what will happen if I get sick. As we grow old and add more responsibilities, do we start losing or disregarding the pure craving that the heart asks for?

I stand near the window looking at the sky
The sun was just here but slowly made way
The dark beautiful clouds are here
Carrying lots and lots of water with them
I stand near the window looking at the clouds
Waiting for the rain to start
I think to myself
Oh rain come soon don't delay
Bring me back those fond memories
That are associated between me and you
Remember when you would arrive
How you would bathe me
How can I forget the fun of playing soccer
While you would keep coming down on us
As I grew I stopped hugging you
But would watch you with a cup of tea in my hand
And thinking about life as a philosophy
And time kept passing
Today I stand by the window
And keep watching you
But I am scared to hug you
Influenced by consequences
But my love for you is perennial
Keep coming in loads
So I do not miss you
And hey why dont you come down
While I am walking on the road
And hug me, my dear rain?

--- Sastry Vadlamani

Human Dignity in Gutters

Imagine This : You are walking down the street. Sorry let me use "I". "I" am walking down the street. "I" suddenly see a bunch of people thrashing a man. They have torn his clothes. They are punching him left, right and central. Blood is coming out from several parts of the body. But no mercy being shown by the people beating who look no less than monsters and seem to be all excited to kill him.

By the way, I assume here that "I" am the good, civilized, law abiding citizen of the country who doesnt involve himself in these acts of nomadic activity.

What goes on in "my" mind? : Some of "me" think Oh my god how could these people be so inhuman? How can they beat this person so inhumanly? Some of "me" are thinking that the person deserves this for the petty crime he committed. Some of "me" who is reporter with several channels is busy taking every possible coverage to make sure that there is enough meat for the night showtime on the TV channel.

What do "I" do? : "I" ignore the whole activity. "I" just watch it. "I" dont move a step forward to rescue the person. What if "I" am beaten up? While he does not deserve such inhuman treatment, why should "I" risk my life to save his life? Anyway, his life is not that precious.

The above sequence of events exactly happened in Bhagalpur last night. NDTV, Headlines Today, CNN IBN etc. had exhaustive and exclusive coverages of poor, skinny thief being beaten black and blue. The anchors were interviewing Kiran Bedi, the people in power and everyone with lots of anguish about how such uncivilized acts could happen in this 21st century India?

I ask CNN IBN, NDTV, Headlines Today : Were your reporters there at the site covering it? If yes, then what kind of cultured human beings are those who kept coverage at a higher level than trying to rescue the poor skinny thief? To me, an educated cultured reporter from your channels doing nothing at the site there puts me to shame more. You know why? They are "educated" and "civilized". If they did attempt to rescue, I am sure you would have covered it exclusively.


Oh by the way, after the event, the following things happened. Do they sound familiar? :

• Two inspectors suspended.
  
• NHRC Issues notice to Government
  
• Nitish Kumar orders probe
  
• Laloo Yadav blames Nitish Kumar and his Goverment
  
• Media keeps on showing the same clip with "parental advisory"
  

And we will forget this event soon too just like we do for others.

Lastly I must also say that I am not criticizing media here. It is because of media that today politicians are not taking public for granted. It is media that has brought information to us.

But what really frustrates me is the fact that their reporters are informed citizens too. Why didnt they act? As I end, it reminds of an incident where a person immolated himself in Bihar sometime back in full media view but all media reporters were busy about was covering it and not putting the cameras aside and rescue the individual. Finally he died.

Finally, I wonder how I will react when tomorrow, in Bangalore, if I come across a similar incident. God, give me enough strength that will convince me to do what is right for supreme human dignity and not worry for anything else.

Postscript after around 1 hour of posting the above: I am not sure if it is an interesting coincidence or not but after I wrote the above, I was generally perusing through some news and came across the following article at CNN-IBN which seems like a rebuttal to my points. Interesting read :

Blame the Media

Onam Ashamsakal

The title means, "Wish you a very happy Onam". On the streets of Bangalore I can see malayalam folks sporting the traditional wear. I see men wearing the traditional lungi. The women in the white sarees with wet hair clipped at 4/5ths length look gorgeous. You can look at them and immediately figure out that today is Onam. Wow what an amazing uniqueness. My colleague told me that on this day there is a Sadhya which means Feast.

I love Malayalam food. In fact I love anything edible made of coconut. So I thought why miss this awesome opportunity of enjoying Malayalam food on the day of Onam. So I went with my colleagues to Sadhya. Wow reminded me of the old days when I enjoyed the brown payasam. Yummy.

It was a soothing experience particularly after hearing the sad news of explosions etc. over the last few days.

It gives such a pleasant feeling when you go to a festival that some other state celebrates, and enjoy the festivities and be part of it. The joy is enormous because I can hear one strong message coming out of it :

We, the Indians, with all our diversities and cultural colors, are the part of a big unique family

BlogSwara

Whoaaa!!!! what a neat concept. I just came across this while searching for music related stuff. I am amazed to see people from different parts of the world coming together.

What is very fascinating is the fact that everyone maintains blog and have their recording on their blogs. Amazing.

Hope I will be with them one day with my contributions too. :-)

Check it out : http://www.blogswara.in/home.htm

Fabulous.

A Sad Routine

Well few hours back in the afternoon I wrote about the beauty of life, the beautiful weather in Bangalore and so on. I come home in the evening and turn on my TV only to see the horrific news on the Hyderabad blasts.

What a routine this has become. One thing has become for sure. No value for life. It needs paradigm shift in our culture to start valuing life.

Just a few months back were there blasts. What did we learn? Nothing.

Who cares for the lives lost? No one except the near families. What a shameful moment.

All that the mainstream channels keep doing now is focussing on the blood lying all around.

Some routine tasks happening :
- CM visits the blast site and appeals for calm.
- Manmohan singh, Sonia Gandhi, Pratibha Patil et al condemn the blasts
- BJP blames the UPA Govt.
- AP State Govt. thinks there is a hand of ISI in it.
- Home Minister calls this a dastardly act
- Forensic Team and dogs will fly down from Delhi
- Tough questions will be asked in Parliament. Not sure if they will be heard in the commotion

Do you notice anything new in the above actions? I dont.

After all the above everything will be forgotten. All of us will forget the lives lost. India will go to sleep only to be woken up by another shock.

But the families will never be able to forget the fact that they lost their dear ones when they went to see a laser show or to eat Chat. They will never be .

Why did we, most people become like this? Because, I, the common person has become extremely self centered. I want money. I want properity. I want a house. I want no hassles. I, I and I. I dont give a shit about the society and people around me. This is the reason why I forget whatever happens to others. As long as it does not happen to me.

But who knows when it happens to me? Everyone will forget. Sigh!!

And out of all this callousness and utter disrepect for human life will one day rise, volcanoes in the society craving for justice, values and above all, a dignified life. The pressure is simply mounting.

Saturday Afternoon

I guess this is nothing but a random rambling from the heart. Its the afternoon time. Nothing to do at home I came to work. As the stuff I am working on refuses to work correctly. So back to debugging and solving the issue. Its sunny outside with lots of activity. People are walking, doing bargains on the roadside, just phasing out into the sky and doing everything you can think of. I look through the window of my workplace. Just stepped out and it is truly pleasant outside. Bangalore is really pleasant. Except when it rains or except at 7:30 p.m in the evening. :-) I called my friends but no one is picking up. Damn it. Not feeling like working, I just went down to grab a cup of coffee. And that too tasted old . One thing I am waiting for though is 9:00 p.m tonight to see who got eliminated from Indian Idol. Yeah thats one thing I have hooked onto. After that Star Voice of India time . It has been raining since the last few days.

Life is beautiful with so many bounties
So many opportunities in its basket
I dream of so many things
I stare into the sky as I look into the future
Many a times we lose focus
And start complaining about the problems
But problems I feel are great lessons
To bring out new facets
I wanna be a scientist
No ! a musician
No! a poet
Oh No!! something else
Countless thoughts
Countless emotions
Countless dreams
I keep looking into the horizon
staring into the future
aspiring new heights
to leave my footprint
before I leave this world
and separate from life.

-- Sastry

खामोश सी शाम

अँधेरे का वक़्त है
आकाश में ढ़ेर सारे
तारे टिंमटिमा रहे हैं
बादल हमेशा की तरह
झुंडों में टहल रहे हैं
ठंडी सी हवा इधर
जमीन पर बह रही है
मैं आँखें मूंदे बैठा हूँ
और ठंडी हवा मेरे रूह को
छू के जा रही है
कई ख़्याल इस हृदय में
आ और जा रहे हैं
क्या सुहाना मौसम है
मेरे दिल के साथ एक
मीठी सी रूबरू चल रही है
रात का समय
मुहल्लाह भी कुछ खामोश सा है
मैं बस आसमान की तरफ देखता हूँ
टिमटिमाते तारों की तरफ देखता हूँ
सोचता हूँ
इस खामोशी से ना जाने मैंने कितनी बातें कर बैठी
और ठंडी सी हवा मुझे बहलाती रहती है

-- By Sastry Vadlamani

Chak De India

Finally got the chance to watch ChakDe India after all the uproar and hullabaloo about it.
Pretty neat movie I thought. But it was not that unique or out of the world. Pretty straightforward and predictable. We always knew what is going to happen. So no surprises out there. All that was there was the punches and how continuously it would keep you on your toes.

And well, you are on your toes when emotional chords are touched. So from these perspectives Chak De India was not unique.

But that being said, I feel these movies are needed so much. And the topic it touched was great I felt that is, Women's Hockey. Anyone would make some tons of movies on cricket. But touching something that is not even being given any heed and making a mainstream movie out of it is a wonderful effort. And what makes more interesting are the roles played by the players. Thank God, they were not played by Madhuri Dixits and Aishwarys Rais. :-) It would definitely have been an utter junk then. The players were indeed real players I thought.

In all probability we all might forget the film as we come out of the hall and get back to our daily lives, but that dose of emotional pride that rekindles a desire to do something before it is too late, in those few hours inside the movie theatre is worth the effort. I hope more movies like this are made. Not necessarily based on sports but also on biographies of great individuals like Srinivasa Ramanujam and so on. They need not be out of the world but they will be good enough to retain and invigorate the pride that we all have in our country and rekindle the spirit to do something.

So go watch it. It is worth it. Enjoy it, get energized and use the energy to build the tomorrow.

Chak De...............

Wish you a very Happy Independence Day

Wish everyone a very happy 60th Independence day. Whatever that means :-) Sorry to be sarcastic.

May everyone be very happy but somehow I do not know why should I be happy? Because IT has caused so called revolution? It has brought the so called respect to India? People have more money? India has more malls? Oh I forgot. Because India has bomb now? :-)

NDTV polls conducted a couple of days back has actually people saying that bomb has made them proud. Ahh... What times are we living in?

May everyone be happy on this independence day while the displaced people in Narmada struggle to find a place.

May everyone be happy on this independence day while the Bhopal gas leak victims continue to be served injustice by their own government

May everyone be happy on this independence day while majority of educated, insensitive citizenry treat the society as a garbage can.

May everyone be happy on this independence day while I see the disparity of one going to mall and the other begging on the street

May everyone be happy on this independence day while deep inside each and every one is insecure on the streets of the free India

May everyone be happy on this independence day while we, the common citizen flout all the rules and law of the land whether it be traffic or anything else.

May everyone be happy on this independence day while we destroy our own environment

And this goes on. My sarcasm goes on. You hate me if you want to.

Lastly, may everyone be happy and sleeping when we should actually be concerned, then arise, awake and be honest to ourselves in our role of nation building.

On this 60th independence day, i wish a leader is born in every small honest heart that will crave to work towards an independence day when we will be truly proud and happy.

Gandhi My Father

I and my wife watched the movie this saturday. I liked the movie though at times it felt like dragging. But some sequences were very emotional. But I kept asking.... Is it Gandhi's fault or it is his son's fault? Did Gandhi not do justice to his son? Did his son expect too much support? Is it same with every individual who wants to do for the greater common good?

But it is very heart rending to see a great mahatma's son die such an unknown death. To die as a beggar with no food.

But at the same time, may be he got what he deserved according to his actions. May be we should not associate Gandhi with his son. Just because Harilal was Gandhi's son does not entitle him to special treatment.

As you sow, so you reap.

Honey Valley Trip

Recently a couple of my friends were visiting from USA. And many of my friends including myself have returned to Bangalore. So we thought this is an awesome opportunity to have a get together with friends, their wives, their children and so on. Since most of us are in Bangalore, we decided we should go out somewhere. Coorg was decided as an obvious choice. There is a place called Honey Valley in Coorg. Around 14 of us finally came together for the trip. We booked a bus from Bangalore to Coorg. It came out to be pretty decent and enjoyable journey. Honey Valley is maintained by a very friendly family and the place of stay was kind of a homestay dormitory.




It was raining heavily though. Seems like Coorg was lashed with rains when we went. So that was kind of a bummer. The heavy rains also caused many leeches to be wandering all around and sucking on our blood.

The place promoted eco tourism.



If you go to such places, go with anti-leech sprays, torches, umbrellas etc.

It was a fun outing.

I would love to go again but this time when it is shining and not raining.