Racism and Casteism

Raped Dalit girl kills self as cops let-off the accused – The girl was raped by an upper caste youth on February 12 in their village.

The above news item shows up in the front page of IBN website. Whenever such news come up, there is not much rage in Twitter or blogs like it happens when Indians are attacked in Australia. Not many are condemning Casteism, like they condemned Racism. Not many concerns of security and the criminals being left unpunished because this is just another day and just another news item in India.

When Australians attack Indians, it is seen as a racist attack. When Indians attack Indians, people insist that it should be seen purely based on the crime aspect that caste and class have nothing to do with it.

Such is our time.

Pune

Then it all went slow motion, everything slow motion
First came the flash of lights, then the sound of explosion
And we’re still in slow motion, we’re still in slow motion

Now it’s all gone slow motion, everything slow motion
The lights gone out – I feel no more emotion
I’m all out of emotion, I’m out of emotion…

From the song, Days of Fire
[Album: London Underground]

(Image courtesy: BBC)

R.I.P Gireesh Puthenchery

I had the fortune of meeting Gireesh Puthenchery at East Coast Studios in Trivandrum. I was there to sing a track song for M G Radhakrishnan sir and Pappechi introduced me to him. I still can’t forget the smile on his face. He turned to me while chewing the betel leaves and when the talk of beginners started, he recalled his initial days as a song writer and about the beginning of his friendship with M G Radhakrishnan sir whom he called Rajettan.

Dear poet, Thank You for all the beautiful songs you penned. Thank you for the movie Vadakkumnathan, which I loved so much because it reminded me about my friend who took his own life a couple of years back. From today, everyone in Kerala will miss you so much whenever we hear your songs…

(Image source)

Married

(Thaali, Manthrakodi and Rings – photo by Aashik)

Can’t believe it happened. Felt blessed to have got wedded in the presence of my closest friends. The doubts, the questions, all seem to be vanishing away. And then there are surprises. She finally sang to me. And she sings pretty much better than I expected. 🙂

Congrats to Anil BS!

Congratulations Anil BS for winning the Kerala State Television Award for the Best Music Director! This is a prestigious moment for all of us who have heard your music through your blog, Blogswara and collaborated with you.

Wish you more success!

Mizhi Thammil (cover)

It has been a long break from singing. Not from music, because my Zune keeps singing loudly for me almost everyday. But singing has suffered ever since the series of sickness started at home 3 months ago. Now that an eventful year has passed and an even more exciting year lying ahead, I thought I would post a song before my big day. 🙂

This song is one of my favorites from the Malayalam movie “Minnaaminni koottam”, a beautiful composition by Bijibal, a promising music director in the Malayalam music industry.

Song: Mizhi Thammil
Movie: Minnaaminni koottam
Music: Bijibal
Original singers: Ranjith, Swetha
Lyrics: Anil Panachooran
Cover version by: Joseph Thomas (Jo)

Download the mp3 of Mizhi Thammil Punarunna (Size: 7.15 MB, Bitrate: 256 kbps)

128 KBPS Streaming:

256 KBPS Streaming:

Engaged!

So the reason for my week-long hiatus from blogging is that I got engaged on last Saturday. Yeah! I got engaged. 🙂 It did not happen overnight, but I didn’t want to announce the news publicly because I messed it up last time. I did not even tell my friends until I was sure about it. And this time, am so sure about what I got.

But it is not a fairy tale love. Though she stays just 2 KMs away from my place, in Thrissur, it is an arranged marriage and we learn many things about each other as we talk every day. It is an interesting process. We have so many opposites on many fronts. And there are so many doubts in both of us about each other. When I crack a joke, am conscious to see if she takes it in the right spirit. When she talks, she seems to be wanting to give me the right impression too. But as we get to speak more, it’s becoming like, “okay, you don’t need to explain it“, and I see it as a positive sign.

I never have believed in an ‘ideal match’. I still don’t believe in it. I think it depends on the couple to understand each other and make compromises and that is what makes an ideal match. Compromises – individually, intellectually, materially and so on… We both are trying to do that. And in that process, we expect hard waters and hope to cruise through them together and understand each other better. So each day we have something new to learn.

Her name is Sony (shortened form of Soniya), and according to a friend “a singer and music fan couldn’t have found a match with a better name” and another friend said, “this is called Poetic Justice! You love music and you get a woman named SONY.” 🙂 She loves music, yes, and she also likes to sing though she has not sung for me yet. She has promised she will, soon.

Am I excited? Yes, but also tensed a lot. In fact, I could not even sleep through the night before the engagement day as there were so many things haunting me personally. Not related to marriage, but on the personal/family front. I hope that all will be over soon. And I am teaching myself not to worry about things that I have no control over. I hope I can sail through the troubled waters and make things work for us. And make more music (I know it has been a long time since I posted a song here, but I promise more songs will flow after the marriage).

As for now, we need your prayers and blessings…

Haiti needs our support

After all the terrible things that happened in Haiti, it is time for us to extend a helping hand to the people of Haiti. I just received an email from International Medical Corps who are working on ground in Haiti and I request all your support for the work they do. Please go through the request below:

International Medical Corps is a global, humanitarian, nonprofit organization, founded by volunteer doctors and nurses and dedicated to saving lives and relieving suffering through relief and development programs. Our emergency response team is in Haiti responding in force. There are still thousands of patients seeking treatment of which approximately 80% are in need of surgery and are running out of time – especially with the tremendous aftershocks still devastating this country. The team is treating crush injuries, trauma, substantial wound care, shock and other critical cases with the few available supplies – And they’re in it for the long haul.

Also go here for more details: http://www.imcworldwide.org/haiti

Donating $10 to help the people of Haiti is as simple as sending a text message of the word “haiti” to 85944.