The voice of God

[December 24, 1924 to July 31, 1980 (pic courtesy: http://www.last.fm/music/Mohammed+Rafi)]

I have always been in awe of Mohd. Rafi. No amount of adjectives can do justice to the quality of his voice. So I'l avoid them and just say that his voice touches my heart like nothing else. He transformed mundane even poor lyrics into beautiful songs and if the poetry was good, he would just do magic with it. His versatility amazes me. He could sing for different types of actors in different roles and portray what the story wanted just right. There are many examples where the actor has in fact failed to do justice to the emotion in the song but its Rafi's voice which talked to the audience. I have laughed, cried and been inspired by his songs innumerable times. His soul shone through his voice which was what set him apart from his contemporaries. His was known to be a shy man of few words even within his family. He rarely talked about his feelings or lost his temper. People who were fortunate enough to have been close to him say that he withdrew into his shell if hurt or angry but could never talk it out. But when he sang, you not only listened to the lyrics but the story behind the choice of those words too. In fact, he was the greatest actor ever if acting means portraying a character other than yourself. His humility is legendary even now. While some singers wanted a share in the profits if a certain song became a hit, he felt that the composer had chosen him to sing without asking for any guarantees so the fee for it couldn't be tampered with later. He felt it was extortion. He maintained this opinion even if it meant alienation from a sector of the Indian film industry. He was an icon for many exemplary singers and the "Voice of God" for the audience. 

If I had to recommend just 5 songs for somebody who wants to reacquaint himself with his voice, this would be my list.

1) Ye duniya agar mil bhi jaye to kya hai  (Pyaasa -1957) 

2) Tum mujhe yu bhula na paaoge            (Pagla kahin ka - 1970)

3) Din dhal jaye                                       (Guide - 1963)

4) Aana hai to aa raah me                        (Naya daur- 1957)

5) Jo vaada kiya vo nibhana padega         (Taj Mahal - 1963)

(Please search for these in YouTube because I'm unable to insert links for whatever reasons.)

Its advantage Nature

Some of the holiest of places for a number of us were washed away in a freak of a natural disaster in the last few days. Places where people go to ask for forgiveness, blessings, jobs, children, return of a lost loved one, peace for the ones they know will never return, became the cause of their own deaths. These were places which have been with us since the beginning of time itself. They have been known for their powers of healing, of solace. They are supposed to have been established by men of God who wanted to spread peace and spirituality to the rest of us. We who have no time to establish a gradual and consistent relationship with the Almighty. We who want to hop skip and run to "holy places" for instant gratification. 

Kedarnath Aerial view during the floods (courtesy economic times)

Kedarnath befire and after the flash floods (courtesy spiritIndia)

Hemkund Sahib (courtesy globalGujratnews)

The road to Hemkund Sahib washed away (courtesy Babushashi)

These were places which have been "made convenient to access" so that every year an increasing number of "devotees" can come and worship their respective Gods. This has been achieved with the help of a number of facilitators like builders, religious trusts, local residents who are there just so that we all have food to eat and places to stay when we go there in thousands everyday. The state governments provide all possible support to these good Samaritans because its a democracy and their motto is "of the people, by the people, for the people". 

Does this look like a mountain side city fabric ???? (courtesy hindustantimes)

Were these places chosen originally for their central location and ease of access? No. Were these places suitable for such large scale and rampant "development" (for the lack of a polite word to express my true inner feelings) ? No. In fact, I do have to use the word which is appropriate. Rape. We, as citizens and as  governments,  have raped these places of all the dignity and respect they deserve and got at a certain point in history.

I believe Nature and not Shiva was the God there. Nature was the one we should have worshiped. It was the very ecology of these places that provided peace and solace to us. We sensed spiritual presence from the purity of air and water there. 

 

Giant Shiva statue in Rishikesh flooded (courtesy ibnlive network) (for the life of me  I'm unable to move this to the center)

It is very insensitive and politically incorrect for me to say this, but when I first heard of the disaster, I had this really strange sort of a happy feeling which you get when you finally get revenge. I am very pained and sad to see the loss of human life in this tragedy. But, if this is how we measure the enormity of a disaster, then all those departed souls served their purpose by grabbing us by our eyeballs. Nature used the only tool or voice it had to express its rage over its mindless exploitation. I salute the force and strength of this voice and pray that it be heard.

A few more questions trouble me. Where are the numerous "guardians" of Hinduism now? Where are the organisations and pundits who proclaim it holy and auspicious when a marble statue "drinks milk" or "cries" ? Why don't they find a religious interpretation to this destruction and say that this is God's way of telling us that we be more sensitive to our mountains and rivers and trees? How do they condone wasting several crores worth of oil and milk as ways of veneration on one side and not derive a meaning from this HUGE catastrophic event on the other? How can we, as a historically educated and developed civilization, still keep faith in such organisations and keep pumping our hard earned money into them? how can we give them the right to be our spokesperson? 

I've done so earlier to as many people as I can and want to again use this blog as a medium to urge people to not support these pseudo-spiritual organizations. Please do not use helicopters to go to Vaishno-Devi. You never know the din of the chopper might trigger a landslide.  Please visit these sensitive places of worship as sensitive and intelligent human beings and not like sheep with a herd-mentality. God has created us to be "us". Let's be.

There's always a new trek at the end of one

I love walking. If my shoes aren't killing me, which they rarely do because i do not associate with shoes with violent tendencies in the first place, and if its not too hot outside I prefer walking to any public or private transport. And that's the reason why treks are my favorite kind of holiday activity. Fortunately, I have a pretty good group of such aficionados in my office. This group, my husband and I went for a short trek a few days ago to a place called Sandhan valley. It was out of this world! Of course not literally because we didn't even step out of our state (yes it was THAT close to Bombay. And yes I am gloating).

from left- my husband Dipanjan, Mayekar and me

The scale of the space will be clear in the next few pictures

It is more a crack in a plateau than a valley formed by centuries of gushing run-offs from the plateau during the monsoons.  But I would like to believe that its been born out of a dhoti clad, Indian style Gandalf's staff while stopping a menacing demon. We even had a "YOU SHALL NOT PAAAAAAAAAASS!!!" reenactment. At the start of the walk (I will replace this word appropriately in the later phase when it ceased to be a walk) we were like Tom Cruise in M.I. and Daniel Craig in Casino Royale all rolled into one. Except that we had foolish grins pasted on us. 

little did we know what lay ahead.....

The trek grew steep and we city bred mortals had a hard time coordinating all the unknown little pieces of muscles we had. Gradually, I realized that my body was behaving like my brain does on a rare Sunday in office. Lazy, disoriented and uncooperative. My legs would give way quite a few times on the extremely slippery stones and would fall in a undignified heap. Thankfully, the rest too were having a tough time keeping their balance or else we would have a lot more pictures of me lounging uncomfortably between the rocks. More than half of the trek we were just dragging our asses from rock to rock. I kid you not when i say this but the only difference between us and a scooting dog was that we had some clothes on. Again thankfully we have no photographic evidence of the said posture. 

This resulted in a rebellion by my shorts. And now that we have all established how thankful I am, let me just say that my dignity was protected by the sheer foresight of my husband. He had packed an extra pair for himself! The flab on my midriff played an important part here in preventing the 2 sizes too big shorts from sliding off.  I hope this post does not portray that we did not have fun. We HAD fun. Big time. I cant put into words how the sound of a woodpecker or one of those whistling birds sounded within those huge rocky walls. The softly falling rain and the dripping water from the sides of the valley, it was all deeply magical. Actually this place is also described as the Grand Canyon of India. Of course, topographically only. 

Il leave you with some pics here before I come to the climax of the whole post because then you will be able to place the whole revelation into perspective.

   

A 30 feet rappelling was also on the menu

that's me lying face down while everybody else had lunch

We found this amazing pond with an awesome view at the fag end of the trek and jumped right in. 

THE VIEW....!

A week after this I came to know that I was pregnant. I mean I AM pregnant. Apparently the young one is quite a tough cookie and of course loves to walk too!!! YAAAAAAYY..... we are going to have a baby!!!