Awkward Moments - Part 3

Confession - I am a huge fan of the 90s hindi movies music. Now the music of 90s can be broadly divided amongst many categories. One would be the Kumar Sanu songs like ayene ke sau tukde karke humne dekhe hai, others would be the soulful Alka Yagnik melodies from Qayamat se Qayamat tak, close in competition would be what were popularly known as the private albums in those days. The time when there were no extra a's and i's in Sonu Nigaam's name and Falguni's albums were eagerly awaited for. And then there were the nonsense no-meaning songs, especially the ones picturised on Govinda - Raveena and Govinda - Karishma. I love songs belonging to all the categories mentioned above. The love for them is invoked mostly by the memories they bring out. Being a 90s kid, the songs remind me of my childhood. Of Doordarshan and Chitrahaar. The emotions associated with these songs means that they are an imperative part of my song collection.

After-all whats not to love about these songs. Who doesn't croon alongside to Kumar Sanu's Chura ke dil mera goriya chali or sing along with Alka to Madhuri's Paalki main hoke sawaar chale rey. On some nights when I can't sleep I buffer old albums on you-tube. I can still picturize myself dancing to Yaad piya ki aane lage on various family functions and weddings.These songs are reminiscent of the running Vividh Bharati in the background while solving quadratic equations and saving up money to buy audio cassettes. Of imitating Madhuri's lehanga from Hum Aapke Hai Koun for sister's wedding and going weak in the knees for Miland Soman after watching re runs of Alisha Chinoy's Made In India.

They say you can judge a person by the kind of music they listen to. I beg to disagree. If you would scroll through my collection of songs you would find 90s collection (well obviously), Kishore Kumar's romantic collection, gazal's by Jagjit Singh ji, Ghulam Ali saab, Gulzar saab, Mehandi Hassan and Nusrat fateh Ali Khan saab, old classics by Lata ji and Rafi saab, the latest movies collection, punjabi songs ( this includes the sad songs quite popular in the public transports in my part of the world), songs by Honey Singh, English songs comprising of old english classics (Nothing's gonna change my love for you) and the latest ones. I feel there should be no prejudice in music. Just like sometimes we feel like having Chinese food one day and may want a pizza some other day, in music too all genes should be given a chance. I follow this principle and practice the same.

My workplace rules do not necessarily disapprove of individual music hearing by associates. But my manager strongly disapproves of it. Hence it is very rare when we listen to music while working or for that matter indulge in any activity remotely fun. This one time my manager and his close spies were all unavailable in office. I made perfect use of this opportunity by listening to music nonstop on my headphones. At some point of time I took off the headset to attend to a query by a team member. Now not being in a habit of regularly listening to music while working, I conveniently forgot about the headsets and the songs playing. After a substantial amount of time I remembered that I needed to ping a friend on wtsapp, so I just picked up my phone and randomly took off the headsets. To my horror song blasted on full volume and what was more horror inducing was the song that was actually getting played.

My mind, hands everything stopped working. However hard I tried I just couldn't get the damn thing stopped. Meanwhile I must have turned scarlet as my cheeks and ears were burning. You will have probably guessed by now that the song responsible for making me this uncomfortable must have been something. Without taking the suspense any further I will spill the beans. The song was from the Govinda - Karishma starrer namely Sarkaye lo khatiya jada lage. Now any hindi speaking person will understand the double meaning behind the song. My bad luck that I unhooked the headphones precisely when this song started to play.

My team members left no stone unturned to embaras me further. There jibes and loud laughs were cringe inducing. More than that were the comments like " Nice choice", "Good collection", Mujhko ranaji maaf karna yeh gaana bhi hai kya?

After this episode next few days in office were nothing short of terror. Though the music listening mode @ office is already were less but I am taking my precautions. My phone is now clear of any song with remotely objectionable lyrics.Whats done cannot be undone. Its been a while now and apart from occasional references to this episode its mostly a dead topic now. 

*Sigh of relief*

P.S Part 1 and 2 of the awkward series can be found here and here respectively. Reread to enjoy and as I always say before ending such posts - Please do share your awkward moments.

Love:
Sepo

Literary Favourites

I happened to spot this every interesting interview experts of the Booker-winning author Anne Enright in the latest issue of Vogue. For every question that I read I had my very own answer popping in my brain. I loved the questions so much so that I decided to make it official and bring it on to blogspot. All the book worms out there will definitely love it.

Book that made me want to write
Five point someone, Chetan Bhagat is one such author who made an average Indian to think and pursue writing. The simple English, the realistic description, the believable characters were the highlights of this book. I still remember I devoured this book in a single day and miserably failed in my Mathematics sessional test of Engineering 3 SEM. What to say, the book was far more interesting than the Laplace Transform.

The book that made me laugh loudest
Up and down in the Dales. This came as a part of four in one stories in Select Editions. I read this after The Return of the Dancing Master by Henning Mankell which was a hard duty book based on the Holocaust. After reading that, Gervase’s book was a breezy ride which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was fun, hilarious and heart touching exactly what I needed.

The book I wish I’d written
This has to be God of Small Things by Arundati Roy.She may always be in news for all the wrong reasons but her book was anything but wrong. This was proved by the booker prize she got for this book. I will be blantly honest in saying that I somehow did not quite get the book when I first started reading it. But I never stopped reading it and as I read on I fell in love with her style and a very distinct style of depression that the book invoked. I know that if ever I decide to write, I will never be half as good as her but then what’s the harm in wishing.

The book that changes with every read
The two books I have read and re-read at various ages in my life are Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë and The thousand Splendid Suns by Khalid Hosseini. The first time I read Jane Eyre, I was in fifth standard and bored. Did not quite understand the book, however over the years it became one of my favourites.
As far as Thousand splendid suns is considered, it is my baby. I am in love with this book and have forced it upon almost everyone I know. And if you are a regular on this blog, you would know it too coz I have bombarded this place with numerous posts about it.

The book I would make everyone read
Our Moon has Blood Clots by Rahul Pandita. The book is about my community and my people, hence holds a special place in my heart. It talks about the atrocities and hardships borne by the Kashmiri Pandit community over the last 60 years. 

The book that taught me about love
The Rendezvous by Evelyn A Anthony. There are those conventional love stories; girl meets guy, sparks, issues, misunderstandings and finally the happy endings. I have nothing against such stories, in fact I am the quintessential Mills and Boon girl. I still sneak in copies of Mills and Boon together with my age-appropriate books.
Anyways, coming back to Rendezvous, this was not a regular love story. In fact love was not even in the backdrop of the book. It was just a part of the book which was both beautiful and tormenting. The book taught me at a very early age that love is not about being together, singing songs and dancing around the trees. It is something beyond pleasure and pain. Something beyond life and death and something beyond forever...

The most honest book I’ve read
Yet to read!!

The book I want my children to read There are many books I want my children to read. But then there a list of books which I do not want my children to miss reading. This will include all the snow white, Cinderella fairy tales. I want my children to lose themselves in the fairy tales and grow an imaginative mind. Apart from this I will make sure they read the Enid Blayton’s ~ and form their very own Secret Sevens and Famous Fives.

The book that made me think it all again
This credit goes to Paulo Coehlo for Veronica decides to die. I read this book when I was going through a particularly bad phase in my life. This book changed my outlook completely and swiftly brought me back to sanity and reality. Good or bad, happy or sad...life definetly is worth living. You never know whats in store for you, happiness and good things may  just be round the corner J

Love:
SEPO