TGIF: Songs to hum - 6

On Friday afternoons, after I am done teaching for the week, I sit in my office, put my feet up on my desk, lean back in my chair and softly hum songs to myself, unwinding and releasing the built-up tension of the week so far. Youtube is a good companion during these times and I have my own version of Chitrahaar, with the songs following some unfathomable pattern, changing per my mood and wishes.  (Previous TGIF posts are here).

Note:  The links may be broken as Youtube links tend to come and go.  I apologize in advance if that happens here.

Here is today's trip through Youtube:

1) My absolute favorite song of 2013 was Tum Hi Ho from Aashiqui 2, sung by Arijit Singh.  I did not see the movie but have seen/heard this song innumerable times.



2)  By the way, if you want to hear all the songs and also find out how Aashiqui 2 starts, begins, and ends you can watch this video of all the songs and some of the dialogues.

नदिया किनारे ...

A few weeks ago, while the Indian cricket team was getting shellacked in England, Hasha Bhogle and Sanjay Manjrekar took some time out to have some fun by the Trent River.  (Sanjay is quite a singer).

(Update:  It is mostly in Marathi, but if you listen carefully, you'll understand the gist of what they are saying.  Wait for him to sing, it is worth it.  Also interesting is the choice of songs.)

TGIF: Songs to hum - 5

On Friday afternoons, after I am done teaching (or preparing for teaching, as the case is this week) for the week, I sit in my office, put my feet up on my desk, lean back in my chair and softly hum songs to myself, unwinding and releasing the built-up tension of the week so far. Youtube is a good companion during these times and I have my own version of Chitrahaar, with the songs following some unfathomable pattern, changing per my mood and wishes. 

Here is today's trip through Youtube:

How could I not start with a Shammi Kapoor song? I should probably elaborate on this some other day, but for now let me just say that the songs of Junglee were the first songs I knew the lyrics to. All of them. Bar none. And I still know them after all these years. (More on that some other day, I promise). In that movie, this was my favorite song, though it not the one that is most commonly associated with Shammi Kapoor.

Atlas shrugs

(Click here for source)

Let's start this post from an unlikely angle. Years ago, Sylvester Stallone wrote and acted in Rocky which, by the way, won an Oscar for Best Picture. (If you're counting at home, that's Sylvester Stallone movies: 1 Oscar, Alfred Hitchcock and Charlie Chaplin movies: 0 Oscars).

Apart from providing fodder for 5 additional Rocky stories as well as countless rags-to-riches sports movies, Rocky popularized a pose, one that was immortalized in Philadelphia with a statue of the same. Here's the pose at the end of the short video (the extremely recognizable and cool Rocky theme music is an added bonus as you watch this training montage).

TGIF: Songs to hum - 4

Every Friday afternoon, after I am done teaching the last lecture of the week, I sit in my office, put my feet up on my desk, lean back in my chair and softly hum songs to myself, unwinding and releasing the built-up tension of the week so far. Youtube is a good companion during these times and I have my own version of Chitrahaar, with the songs following some unfathomable pattern, changing per my mood and wishes.

Here is today's trip through Youtube:

First up, a song from the Telugu movie Magdheera which has among the best special effects I have ever seen in an Indian movie. Almost seamless!

Maggi Noodle Review: This is it

In the early 1980's, I was a budding quiz enthusiast in Hyderabad who was mostly content to ride the coattails of my more accomplished brother. Let me rephrase that - my much, much, much more accomplished brother. Gathering trivia was an obsession and I remember stumping him once by declaring that Michael Jackson had the biggest selling album of all-time. (It's a totally different matter that my brother was more into Geeta Dutt and SD Burman so I don't think he cared that I knew MJ's name!). The Grammy Awards were telecast in India for the first time the year MJ won 8 awards for Thriller. While watching the show, my brother and I surmised that he was "preserving his voice" for his concerts. Only much later, when I actually heard the songs, did I realize that MJ did have a high-pitched voice.

Over the years, Michael Jackson's world got more bizarre by the day, eventually culminating in an early demise. However, music has a beautiful way of lingering on long after someone is gone. This is it is more than just a collection of Michael's songs - it is a window into the last few days of the talented singer-dancer. Say what you want about his off-stage activities and medicinal challenges, on the stage the man was transformed into something else.

Reviving rhythms

Once in a while there is a perfect storm in an Indian movie - picturization, actors, acting, song, singers, lyrics, and music all come together and create everlasting memories.

Here's one that came rushing through into my thoughts a few minutes ago and took me back almost 30 years...Kamal Hassan, Sridevi in Aakali Rajyam:

Better left unseen

Sometime, it is better to have simply heard a song than to have seen it and had your vision of it ruined.

हर कोई चाहता है एक मुट्ठी आसमान ...

Today, I had the misfortune of having this Kishor Kumar gem ruined by its picturization. Oh dear! I wish I could go back 5 minutes in time...

TGIF: Songs to hum - 3

Every Friday afternoon, after I am done teaching the last lecture of the week, I sit in my office, put my feet up on my desk, lean back in my chair and softly hum songs to myself, unwinding and releasing the built-up tension of the week so far. Youtube is a good companion during these times and I have my own version of Chitrahaar, with the songs following some unfathomable pattern, changing per my mood and wishes.

Here is today's trip through Youtube:

TGIF: Songs to hum - 2

Every Friday afternoon, after I am done teaching the last lecture of the week, I sit in my office, put my feet up on my desk, lean back in my chair and softly hum songs to myself, unwinding and releasing the built-up tension of the week so far. Youtube is a good companion during these times and I have my own version of Chitrahaar, with the songs following some unfathomable pattern, changing per my mood and wishes.

Here is today's trip through youtube:

TGIF: Songs to hum - 1

Every Friday afternoon, after I am done teaching the last lecture of the week, I sit in my office, put my feet up on my desk, lean back in my chair and softly hum songs to myself, unwinding and releasing the built-up tension of the week so far. Youtube is a good companion during these times and I have my own version of Chitrahaar, with the songs following some unfathomable pattern, changing per my mood and wishes.

Today's random Youtube selections have been along these lines:

Heart of the matter

Two pieces of genuine mirth and awesome-ness.

a) What do you do if you are Manoj Kumar and your dad is suffering a heart attack, the doctor refuses to come, and all you have are two batteries? Why, you cure him, of course!

Randomly speaking

Quick thoughts and feelings:

Shah Rukh's changing persona

These days Shah Rukh Khan goes around loudly (and proudly) proclaiming that his name is Khan.

It wasn't always that way, you know. Why, just a few years ago he was singing a completely different tune. How fickle-minded of him!

He didn't think I'd forget, did he?

Hello, world

Someday, somewhere, Tiger Woods will emerge from his self-imposed vanvaas. Numerous folks have voiced their opinion about how and when he should come back and which platform to announce it on.

I think it is time for Eldrick Tont Woods to change his nickname. He should take some inspiration from an iconic Hindi movie and announce his return thusly:

Color coded

If you are color-blind this video is not for you. I have never seen a movie of the actor (Prabhas) but adored the actress (Shriya) when I first saw her in Santhosham. It appears she has become a big star in the interim but I have missed most of her subsequent movies so I do not know if she has added to her range of expressions.

She can dance, though.

Those were the days..

"You see the whole country of the system is juxtapositioned by the hemoglobin in the atmosphere because you are a sophisticated rhetoretician intoxicated by the exuberance of your own verbosity."