Art & Crafts

Suggest and Get a Designer Card Free

by

Good news !

I am planning to make my own personal website. I have few ideas and I need your inputs too – as the site you may love to see. Please suggest me with your comments or mail [premishere {at} gmail [dot] com] .

1. What components would you like to be included in my website ?
2. What kind of site appearance would you like to see – A casual / formal / something different ?

Send feedback soon and receive my specially crafted new year real card as compliment. The card you can use to send someone special.

Please let me know, what my personal site should have ?

Hurry ! Limited Edition Cards !!

Love Letters

by

Byomkesh Bakshi – the detective’s character of a TV serial,  I liked a lot, whom I knew quite later as Rajit Kapoor.  Today we four friends went to see his live performance of Love Letters at Rangashankara. This play written by A R Gurney had been nominated for Pulitzer Prize.

This play has been said to be performed more than 250 times. The dual character drama is based on the letters sent by each other over the span of 50 years. The act of “Andrew Makepiece Ladd III” performed by Rajit Kapoor bought the life in the character. And on the other side the role of “Melissa Gardner” was well justified by Shernaz Patel.

The narrative letters orated by both of them from the two side of stages over their changing years/ scenes was taking audience though the different times and moods of two persons sharing their almost all kind of feelings. Both the actors , in the roles of school students to aged people’s role – they seemed completely immersed into.  A flawless performance indeed !  And at the end (when like all love stories) the drama was sad Andy(Andrew) was near to the grave of Melissa – Rajit was crying. And  around 3 hours immersed in the role of Andy at the time of the final stage appearance – his eyes were still wet.

Adding to wetness of his eyes – was his happiness seeing the standing ovation of  houseful Audience. He shared a really good chemistry with Shernaz and I guess they just perfected the characters of ‘Andy and Melissa” without memorizing the script word by word.

It was my first live classical theater experience and was a really satisfying experience.  Wish to see more such live performances of great actors in coming days..

( Photo credits: The Hindu , The Tribune )

Have Feet – Will Dance

by

Have Feet – Will Dance ™ – The motto of SDIPA.

For the uninitiated – SDIPA stands for Shiamak Davar’s Institute for the Performing Arts.

I saw the poster of SDIPA classes in Jayanagar 4th block last year itself, but somehow the I was late to call the enrollment office, but this time I did not missed it and got the seat.

Learning dance was needed from childhood itself. It was a forceful push by Ma, to a dancing group in the durga-puja became a obsession later. Yeah, I do love to dance  on my feet to my own tunes, when ever I do get a chance.  But I needed a professional touch and discipline to it.  And in the month of January I joined it at SDIPA in Winter funk to learn Jazz. 

After training of 12 classes, our adult’s beginner’s group made the final presentation at St. John’s Auditorium on the rocking song of Jab We Met – Mauza hi Mauza. And the synchronized entry and exit towards audience (to make them dance) was really good. The song required a lot of energy and hopefully the group did its best. The quite good ( pretty too :p )  instructor made the tough steps easy and learning dance was really a fun for the beginners like us.  Her smile made the whole batch learn smile a lot.  

About 1,500 students were present in the presentation day from all Bangalore centers !  Not caring for food or time, many of them seemed practicing slowly in small groups, still before the presentation! What makes such a large number of people dance ?  One may be surprised to know the student’s age group. Its ranges from 4 to 60+.

Shiamak must had some very clear dreams and willingness to live a life , that he thought to share, through the performing art forms – dance . 

Thanks to Shiamak, whose heart speaks –

“I am an eagle that soars over southern seas,
I am a reason for people, who want to believe,
‘I am’, ‘I am not’, ‘I should be’, ‘I could be’,
In a world of ‘I’, I’m a person with just one belief:
Love my priceless possession
& God my savior in need.”

Hope to join the next level batches in summer funk.

For your eyes only – 7

by

Whenever I go to my small town, in everything I internally do comparison and contrast between the metro of Bangalooru and district town Kishanganj. Say, I do that for almost everything not for discussion but think a lot, what makes two places different.

On Puja occasions, we do see fair (mela) type scene, which meant a lot for us in childhood, but now a days from there not many things that we need to buy. In childhood, a small piggy-bank ‘gullak’ meant a lot, when purchased from the mela-vendor. On the edible side, still Puchkas and Jalebi’s I can’t resist to buy and now we do look for hygienic vendors. Pity, this time only 50 Puchka (Golgappas) I did gulped, because my brother-in-law did not give me company for long :p


Balooooooons 🙂 ( I still do buy some, just to hang on door 🙂


Churiyan (Bangles) – Oriental woman’s love…


Mina Bazaar – ( What a contrast to metro designer showrooms : no mannequins, neon lamps and brand names here and its the lifeline of Majority of Indian )


Wow so cheap ! Chat Rs. 5/- , Samosa 2/-


Mud pots and toys

A young man selling artificial flowers ( Now globally people can see his flowers 🙂 ) ( Look behind there is written on wall “Chhatra Sakti( Student Power) – What a contrast !!

For your eyes only – 6

by

On the Navami evening, I and my younger brother-in-law went out for the visiting the Puja pandals. My sister, Pinky decided not to go out because of the small kid, and so did Ma as she was not going. To us, walking hours, visiting the pandals through the crowd, meeting friends and relatives has been , great evening, once in the year. Though we could not spend time at any pandal much. Here are the more snaps of pandals, we visited.


Railway Colony Pandal (After seeing so many ballons, Still feeling kiddish 🙂


Railway Colony Deity (Dhupa Aarti is going on)


Deity made up of Glass @ Manoranjan Club ( that time under light show)


Durga Ma @ Lohar Patty Temple


Tribal Artwork @ Dompatty (See two sikhs praying at right side) Our town has the best example of communal harmony.


Ma Durga @ Subhash Pally Mandir ( Traditional way)


All Deity in one Singhashan @ Milan Pally Temple (All the deity is at one altar only- thats the traditional way )

Thousands of Thanks

by

Sending 25 thousands thanks to You. You have made 25,000 visits to this blog. Your consistency and encouragement motivated me to get a Nikon for capturing unexpressed moments in the stage of words. 

Flower Vase, Drawing Room, Bangalore 

Today, welcome all of you in my drawing room. This particular image will change periodically as per changing time and colors. I wish, I could put some more pictures frequently to express something worth thousands of words, when my literal words need them as companions.

Thanks once again.

Music for life – 3 : Begum Abida Parveen (Sufi Queen)

by

“Aashna – Mystical fragrance of divine love by Begum Abida Parveen” is the album by Times Music – I am listening these days.

A taste for Sufi music – the diva have something great for your soul – through the channels of ears. One can understand that through the path of love one reaches the supreme joyous path leading to God. So what better than songs and poems can convey the feelings!

Begum Abida Parveen born on 1954 in Larkana, Pakistan has got trained voice brought up by her father Ghulam Haider’s music school and then Ustad Salamat Ali Khan (Sham chourasia Gharana). And the wings to her voice was given by her husband Ghulam Hussain Shiekh (senior producer of Radio Pakistan).

In this album she has picked up the lyrics of Urdu poets personally and the rendition is spiritual. Her heavy voice gives one a base to lift upwards the plane of love and hate one stays.

As the words are ‘Urdu – Punjabi’ type normal light song listeners needs some effort to understand the words deeply. But the voice have spiritual touch for sure, simple disciplined yet carefree.

Lyrics of Sufi verses from CD 1 – >

Song no. 1
Bulle noon samjhana Aaiyaa ( Poet : Baba Bulleh Shah )

Ganga tirath mul naa mil yaa painde behisaab hu
Jag daa murshid mil yaa baahu chhutte sab azzake hu
God is neither found in the sky, nor at the pilgrim towns
He cannot be found in bookish knowledge, even in high towers
God was not near to Ganga( But He is here)
All my troubles have ceases since my preceptor looked at me.

Song no: 3
Rabba Mere Haal Da ( Poet: Hazrat Shah Hussain)

Rabba mere haal da mehram tu
( You are the only one who understands my pain)

Jo kucch baab mere dukh karde Hai ki khabar kise nun
(No one knows how much pain my sorrows give)

So yaa jane kadar Mohammad Tanman lagdi jaenoon
( Only the one who experiences it, understands the pain)

———————-

Yaaran baaj Mohammad Bakhsha
Kaun kare damkhari
( God is kind, my friends ae around me
Who share my grief and sympathise with me )

——————–
Kahe Hussain faqir nimmana
Main nahin sab tu
(Helpless hussain can only say
All this is your energy, not mine)

Song no. 5 :
Ishq de pichche bane faqir ( Poet: Waris Shah)

Kaafire denda pinda vich saare
Aao kise faqir je hona je
Mang khavnaa, kamm na, kaaj karna
Na kujj chadhna te, nahin chauvnaa je
Zaraa kann padaaeeke swaah mallani
Guru saare hi jag da hovnaa je
( Ranjha is an addict of love, a maverick
He is like the king of the world
Love has made Ranjha
A sage, a renouncer , a fakir )

The bonus thing with this album is lyrics with meanings are given in a pretty good booklet (Which I reproduced partially). That helps to understand the lyrics in her mystic voice that sublimes one. Earlier when I didn’t go deep into sufi music, without any particular reason Nusrat Fateh Khan’s few songs I could hear for hours at stretch.

If one believes in spiritual touch of love for God and vice versa – this poetic album will surely uplift the listener – of course if one is ready to accept a taste – that is altogether a higher plane of music.

Songs – I love most

by

I am tagged by Juneli for Music. I did avoid accepting tags, but trying to go with the blogging winds as it has some essence of own.

Choosing out best out or creative bests, from ranges is really difficult but I had to do. So here goes…

Your favorite lyricist and the lyrics you remember the most…
As there are many but given the weaving style of words and one choice of lyricist then, is :
“Gulzar”
And I would like to put some of his songs, I liked most
Lakdi ki kaathi – Movie : Masoom
In childhood, we children used to imitate this song.
Dil hoom hoom kare –Movie : Maachis
O re kaanchi, kaanch ki gudiya – Movie : Ashoka

Your favorite song on friendship…
This I wanted to copy-paste from Juneli , but one song came to my risk at right time.
Chahoonga Maein Tujhe Saanjh Sawere
Phir Bhi Kabhi Ab Naam Ko Tere
Aawaaz Maein Na Doonga
Dekh Mujhe Sab Hai Pata
Sunta Hai Tu Man Ki Sada
Mitwa…Mere Yaar
Tujhko Baar Baar
Aawaaz Maein Na Doonga…
Dard Bhi Tu, Chain Bhi Tu
Daras Bhi Tu, Nain Bhi Tu
Mitwa…Mere Yaar
Tujhko Baar Baar
Aawaaz Maein Na Doonga…

Best song portraying life’s emotion :
(Zindagi ki yehi reet hai
Haar ke baaz hi jeet hai) – 2
Thode aansu hai, thodi hasi
Aaj gham hai to kal hai khushi
Zindagi ki yehi reet hai
Haar ke baaz hi jeet hai
Thode aansu hai, thodi hasi
Aaj gham hai to kal hai khushi

Which song are you humming today?
Ek akela is sahar mein,
Raat mein aur dophar mein
Abodana dhundhta hai,
Aashina dhundhta hai..

One song which brings tears to your eyes…
Tujhe sooraj kahoon ya chanda
Tujhe deep kahoon ya taara
Mera naam karega roshan
Jag mein mera raaj dulaara

Movie : Ek Phool Do Mali
Singer: Manna Dey
Lyricists: Prem Dhawan

As I still remember my childhood day when I was small boy. I entered the room and saw my mother sitting on bed and tears flowing on her cheeks, though she was not crying. I asked her – why she was crying. In the tape-recorder this song was being played that time. Holding my palms, she told to me “Bhabchi, tui ki ekta bhalo chele hote parbi ! (Thinking, if you will be good boy !)”.

A song which gives you hope, a reason to try again and again, a reason to say that life is beautiful…
Though I am trying to choose out Hindi songs only but this song I thought to bring in…
Jodi tor daak sune keo na aase tobe ekla chalo re – By Ravindranath Tagore
যদি তোর ডাক শুনে কেউ না আসে তবে একলা চলো রে।

When you want to be with yourself, silent and content but with music, which song would that be?
Though I listen collection of instrumentals mostly- with themes of air, wind, valleys, rivers and ecstasy and In case of songs, I do listen.
Dil hai chhota sa, chhoti si asha
Masti bhare mann ki bholi si asha
Chaand taaron ko chhoone ki asha
Aasmaanon mein udne ki asha…
Movie :Roja
Music :A R Rahman
Singer : Minmini

If you have to express love for someone with a song which would that be…
(Will bring out my best love poem collection) if she does not understand poems than will take help of Kishore Kumar and sing :
Tere Chehre Mein Vo Jaadu Hai, Bin Dor Khincha Jaata Hoon
Jaana Hota Hai Aur Kahin, Teri Oar Chala Aata Hoon

Five songs which you listen to the most…
Lata –
Kuch na kaho, kuch bhi na kaho
Kya kehna hai, kya sunna hai
Mujhko pata hai, tumko pata hai
Samay ka yeh pal tham sa gaya hai

Kishore Kumar –
Chhoti Si Ye Duniya,
Pehchaane Raaste Hain
Tum Kabhi To Miloge,
Kahin To Miloge To Poochhenge Haal
Chhoti Si Ye Duniya ...

Jagjit Singh:
Haath chute bhi to Ristey nahi toda karte

Manna Dey :
Yeh raat bheegi bheegi, yeh mast fizaayein
Utha dheere dheere voh chaand pyaara pyaara

Mukesh –
Aawaara hoon, aawaara hoon
Ya gardish mein hoon aasmaan ka taara hoon

A song for the person who tagged you…
Okey then one from Maitighar..
Yoho mero pranbhanda..pyaro..maitighar…
One more bonus song from Darpan-Chhaya..
Lahana le judayo ki..
bahana le bhetayo
herinjaal ko samjhana
tutey pachi birsana..
zindagani darpan chhaya
herinjaal ko samjhana
tutey pachi birsana..
zindagani darpan chhaya

I want to tag :
Whoever is music lover and reading it now, and is not tagged still, please pick it up.