Saadda Haq

Dhunki

Hawai Chappal

The term was Hawai Chappal. Hawai loosely translates to air, as in Air Jordan. Meaning, when you wore these, it felt like you were floating in the air. Hardly anyone in the village wore them. People walked barefoot. Chappal is the term for sandal. But sandals were leather. So there is no exact translation. You had to be well off to be able to wear these. Just like you had to be well off to be able to eat vegetables every day.

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But people still bought them. For when you had to go visit a relative. Or when there was a fair in a nearby village. When there was a fair people would carry the chappals in their hands and walk barefoot for those 40 minutes, and then when they neared the village where the fair was at they would find a nearby pond where to go wash their feet and put the chappals on. I mean, if you wore them all the time they might wear away, and then where were you?

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Just watched Amitabh's Deewar for the first time, I am surprised I had not seen it already.

Amitabh Bachchan: Deewar

I mean, I don't believe this. I grew up watching this dude. I am his evergreen fan. I don't think I have ever watched a full Paul Newman movie, and if I did I probably watched it when I had no idea who he was, maybe I have watched one, but I don't remember, but I have seen Americans revere Paul Newman. And recently I left a comment at TechCrunch.

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Kick It

I just got back from an amazing event. I don't know where it was, as in I can't tell you the name of the neighborhood, but it was walking distance to me, 40 minutes one way. I am on the L line. Walking was faster than taking the train through some kind of a circuitous route, and on a day like this, I mean.

This poster was the theme poster for the event, and I did not need any more convincing. I did 1300 squats yesterday and practiced a few kicks of my own.

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Nick Gray: Bollywood Moves

(Via Soraya Darabi)
Photo by Clay Williams

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Economic Reforms In India

My friend Ashutosh Tiwari posted an article of his on his Facebook wall. It was first published in the Nepali Times.

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During the 'licence raj' in the 70s and the 80s, while India was posting its so-called 'Hindu rate of economic growth' of around 3.5 percent a year, Bollywood portrayed industrialists as villains. These were rich men who lived in palatial buildings, befriended politicians for licenses and permits, smuggled goods, evaded taxes, and exploited labourers....... Since the mid-90s, however, with India's annual economic growth averaging about seven percent, Bollywood has churned out decidedly pro-capitalist movies. The bad industrialists are gone. So too are the pitiable poor who tug at the heartstrings of socialists everywhere. It's not labour and factories that make up the plots of today's movies. Instead, they are about the intra-family relationships of wealthy multi-generational clans with roots in India and branches elsewhere.

The current Prime Minister of India started economic reforms in the country in 1991 when he was Finance Minister. Thanks to those reforms India has seen almost China like growth rates for almost a decade now.

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Music is an integral part of our lives, our being and our existence, irrespective of what the others may have to say on the subject. It lifts, cajoles, caresses, envelopes you in a bind which never leaves you. A piece heard at an impressionable age remains with you for a life time. Music and song collectively is a force, which has serious physical ramifications. We have heard of the great Tansen stories and the effect his music had on weather conditions. We have seen strong and sharp classical music notes and chords, demolish glass and shatter it to pieces. We have seen and heard the power of religion when it encompasses the rituals that connect it to sound. The prayer meetings of different faiths - the ‘bhajans’ the ‘azaan’ and the hymns bring a feel of religiosity. Strengthening belief with its repeated recitation. The Gods are pleased it seems when they are sung to. Music has the power to impress them to. And of course I miss mentioning the singing of Anthems and the fervor of patriotism it invokes. Your own anthem of your own country does something to us. It instills in us a sense of belonging. This is my land, my country, my flag and my anthem. I belong to it, and it belongs to me. That is a lot to be said about any other music heard.

There is that other little matter of football and the singing crowds and the belief that the energy of collective singing shall most certainly move mountains, or least of all a goal in favor of your home team. The beauty of all this being that the singing invariably gets carried along from the playing field to the nearest bar for most of the day. Sometimes many days !! And when it does it may not all turn out to be pleasant.

So …. melody ! And the strange effect it has on our psych irrespective of age and place and moment .. !!

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Brooklyn Loves Bollywood

Bollywood Loves Brooklyn
Bollybrook

I was just on the phone with Anne Marsen. She is the woman in the video.


Bachna Ae Haseeno (BollyBrook Remix) from Anne Marsen on Vimeo.

She was a friend of a friend of Nick Gray who happened to be in Mumbai. So one day Nick calls and talks about his idea for the music video. Would she do it?

Bollywood Loves Brooklyn

Bachna Ae Haseeno (BollyBrook Remix) from Anne Marsen on Vimeo.

Pardes

Kaante (2002)