Drifter

I have lived through three different states in India through my life of 29 years, Delhi (10 years), Maharashtra ( 18 years) and Gujarat (1 year). I have lived, worked and studied in two of the largest cities in the world, Delhi and Bombay. My parents belong to Uttar Pradesh, another different state. That means I have grown up in a predominantly North Indian (Hindu) environment inside the house and exposed to something else outside. For my non-Indian friends, I would like to explain that cultures in different states of India are shockingly different. Both linguistically as well as way of life. Festivals brought this out quite sharply in my childhood days as we didn't live in a metropolitan city.
I grew up in a small town in Maharashtra. Even though it resulted in a good exposure to a variety of food, religious practices and languages, I always felt like an outsider as a kid. All my relatives were back in my native state and we met only once a year or less. This meant that most of my days were spent with school friends and neighbors. School was always a great equalizer but the real tussle was with neighbors. I was always made fun of because of the way I spoke Hindi (too correct) or because of the way I couldn't laugh to other kids' jokes (she just wont get it). Frankly, I didn't mind. Never enjoying a large group of friends I was okay with it. Plus, I had a great younger sister for company.
As I grew up, I noticed that people have these separate fallback groups. Childhood friends from school, friends from places they have spent all their lives in, friends as kids from parents' friends, etc. I, on the other hand, having drifted from one house to another even within a city couldn't boast of any lasting relationships with other children. This also developed my nature of letting go of people who I didn't see everyday. Today, I don't have a single friend who I want to connect to or meet up just to have a good time. I enjoy the company of my closest family or just me.
This doesn't mean that I am not jealous of people who have this amazing network of relationships which act as support groups for both them and their parents in old age. I do miss that "strength in numbers" feeling once in a while. Sometimes I wonder is it because I was always a loner at heart or is this a natural progression in behavior because of the "circumstances", as my sister is quite the opposite.
Do share if you have similar experiences.
P.S.: I have realized that I am really bad at giving titles. Plain simple numbers from here on, I guess. 

Coming soon...

Its been almost a month since my last post. I'm going to post soon and it will be about migration, feeling rootless and the all the good and bad that go with it. The idea came to me when Jim, the amazing, told me about the Latvian shot in His Wife's blood. Do drop in guys because I will need responses on this one. I need to know whether you have similar or not stories to tell.
Stick around.

The one in which Europe and America dissolve their differences and join forces to make the day of an unknown Indian girl.(The title will have more alphabets than the post today)

I know I will lose the little readership I had today but IT STILL FASCINATES ME!
I promise my next post will not feature the world map. 

US rules....(my page) !!!

I hope I have better things to write about. But right now I am taken up with the stats! I check the stats page everyday. Its fascinating when people far off read you and you get to know their location. The latest news is that.......

US of A wins....!!!!!

Thanks you ...(tears of joy and gratitude streaming my down my face). I hope that didn't sound sarcastic. I was merely exaggerating.

I like Latvia

I have decided that I like Latvia. I have come to this conclusion after some research and a very selfish purpose. I will present some of the facts I found about Latvia below and the selfish reason will be revealed in the later half of the post.

• Latvia seems to be a beautiful country. Check it out here.
• Wikipedia says that, with 2,070,371 inhabitants^[5] and a territory of 64,589 km² (24,938 sq mi)^[8] it is one of the least populous and least densely populated countries of the European Union. This brings the density to 32 people/ sq.km. [Being from India, you can realise how highly I regard this fact. Indian population density stands at 365 ppl/sq.km.]
• Latvia is a country in the "Baltic" region of Northern Europe with their major language being Latvian.[ Latvian is an Indo-European language."Baltic" can be roughly translated into Hindi as "of the bucket". It seemed to be an important cross-reference. ]
• Latvia was first declared independent on 18th of November 1918. [I was married on 18th of November 2010! See the connection?]
• Latvia was recognised as a nation on January 26, 1921. [India became a Republic on January 26 1950. I'm telling you, I was destined to like Latvia.]
• They even had a cool Singing Revolution to reclaim their independence between 1987 and 1991! [I have a deep love of singing and a singing revolution seems to be THE perfect type of protest to me. Even so, I feel they must have used some really bad singers to force an issue of independence down the Russian throats.]

There are some more cool facts but you will have to do your own research for that. Now, coming to the selfish reason for liking Latvia.

Do you see? The Latvians make up the majority of my readers. I thank them from the bottom of my heart for dropping by. But I would really like to know what drew them here. If any of my Latvian readers are reading this then please let me know. 

I also want to ask my fellow bloggers if they have come across such interesting statistics. 

Help.....

I have tried to change the layout of my blog. Its coming out fine except the list of my favorite bloggers hanging like a sword on the head of my posts. Even though I love all these people "literally", it has screwed up the whole arrangement of my page. The worst part is I dont know how they got there. Please help me to give them their own respectable place and a nonthreatening position.

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.)