It was the afternoon of September 16, 2015 and I was in the lounge of Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, sitting next to a childhood memory. We had just finished a long chat and I was feeling what I always feel when am in the presence of pure authenticity, Â unpretentious goodness and for the lack […]
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Tag: Sahir
Estranged
The blood they shed in your name in my name in our name runs in the veins of this country as the music of Baba Allauddin Abdul Kareem Khan saheb Amir Khusrau Ustad Amir Khan Begum Akhtar Ustad Bismillah Khan and so many who sang of Ram and Allah of your heart, my spirit […]
Of Hum Dono and Love Beyond Deconstruction
Recently, I sat down with a cup of lemon tea and watched The Lunchbox and Piku in one long stretch. To reassure myself that the world was still made up of serendipitous conversations tucked in fleeting moments when strangers connect and make soul contact. Sometimes via little notes that talk of the smell of spent […]
The Politicisation Of Dissent
In Pyaasa, Guru Dutt’s 1957 classic, the protagonist Vijay (He too is an anti-hero who takes on the establishment but his weapons unlike the edgy Vijay we saw in the 70s are poems, not punches) goes wandering in the lanes where young women are being bought and sold as objects of sexual gratification and sings, […]
The Fragrance Of Urdu Poetry
There was a time when young children in small Northern towns, regardless of their religious denominations, learnt Urdu. And when they grew up, many young men like my father could recite the Gita and write and read Urdu as if it was the most natural thing to do. ** The generation after his, caught up […]