Life is…My thoughts…

Before I start writing anything else, I must thank Narvinder Bal who actually let me know that this awesomeness was going to happen in the city.  Well, watching Abida Parveen live concert was another dream come true. We reached the venue well in advance. And to our biggest surprise, we were about to enter the place where she had to perform and what we saw that she is coming from the other side and crossing from where we were standing. It was kind of so surprising that we couldn’t even manage to ask her for a photograph .

We entered the venue and took our seats. Due to a bit of rain in the morning the weather had turned really pleasant, a kind of perfect for such an evening. The program started around 6:30 but Abida’s performance started around 7:30 as there were few other things before that. Few songs by 2 singers from Zee’s Sa Re Ga Ma concert and a dance performance by a group. Finally around 7:30 she came on the stage, in her typical style, acknowledging the crowd waving her both hands in the air.  The stage was all set and she immediately took her seat. The opening performance was Amir Khusro’s man kunto maula which she started with oooo jeeee maulaaaaaaa o miaaaannnn and believe me listening to that much only was equivalent to attending the full concert. There was pin drop silence in the audience and the only voice in the air was maulaaaaaaa….maulaaaaaaa…absolutely mesmerizing. Then she went on to sing verses from the poetry of Bulle Shah. The next was Kabir’s poetry. Then few of tracks were bit new to me. Finally came the legendary jab se tune mujhe diwana bana rakha hai…totally super awesome. She sang for around 2:25 hours and ended the concert with dama dam mast qalandar. It was an amazing performance and I am already looking forward to her next performance in the city.

As usual there were so many distractions. The biggest being that people didn’t reach in time and there was so much of disturbance of people moving around. Another reason was that probably they distributed more number of passes than the seats so many folks were standing as they were unable to get the seats.

Otherwise also what I have observed about myself is that I am not able to enjoy in live concerts as much as it should be. That i think, mainly due to all the distractions around. To enjoy this kind of music, one needs to be in certain state of mind. Now first that state of mind can’t be achieved intentionally and secondly due to so many disturbances at the venue it becomes so difficult to connect with the music. I would go to the extent that a single youtube video can give more satisfaction than watching that song live. Obviously when you are in that “state of mind”. This thing really disappoints me .

Anyways, i am so happy of having seen all the great singers live in concert. My next wish is to see Sain Zahoor Ahmed (along with watching Rahat, Ghulam Ali, Abida, Jagjit Singh & Wadalis again ) perform live. Let us see when that wish is fulfilled .

My friend Neeraj sent me an sms in the morning and then i replied and so on. That made a pretty funny conversation. I thought about posting it here . So here goes the conversation.

Him

Man everytime i ask for songs u burn same Dvd from ur laptop songs. U did this 3 times and i hv 3 versions of same songs.

Me

))))))))) That bloody means u r playing that dvd now

Man selection is really really difficult process. All the gems i refer u to, are the result of so many years of hard work

Him

No i m not playing. I didnt find anything new. These days totally obessed with bohemia, listening him 2-3 hrs daily. Btw, shouldnt one univ give u P.hd for music research and ptc pjbi award “most versatile music listener”

Me

))))) This whole conversation can be a very good blog post. ll post it

Him

Few days ago, while going through some videos on youtube i came across a song ve asan tainu ki aakhna by Masooma Anwar. Oh boy what a voice ! She is studying MBBS and taking up singing along with the studies.

Then she renders legendary Reshma’s ve main chori chori

Such a soulful voice. Totally reminds me of Reshma. There are other videos of her as well. Another superb performance is kalaam-e-Iqbal

Totally stunning performances !!!

Wishing her all the best. We have another voice like Reshma ! (I don’t mean to have any comparison)

Today, finally i got the chance to watch Rahat Fateh Ali Khan live in concert. As we haven’t seen Nusrat singing live so to watch Rahat perform is the closest we can get to watching Nusrat live. And yes that is true as well. No surprises here, Rahat is hugely talented.

Lets first talk about the good stuff. He stared with man kunto maula and did it brialliantly. After that came 2 bollywood movie songs he has done, no wonder he did it awesomely but that was not the stuff we were interested in. Then came the real gem dillagi…Nusrat’s version is of 17 mins. It was not that long but again brilliantly did. Next was yeh jo halka halka saroor hai…& it was a mind blowing performance clearly showing what a great teacher Nusrat was and how beautifully Rahat has been trained under him. Again a long spell of bollywood stuff and then sanu ik pal chain na aave & akhian udeekdiyan. He was about to end it with dam mast qalandar but somebody requestesd to sing tere mast mast do nain (from movie Dabbang). He amazingly sung tere mast mast do nain; not really in a movie song style but at really high pitch. Amazing…amazing performance. And the ending beauty was evergreen dam mast qalandar mast mast that got everyone to clapping with the song. For me personally, the bollywood stuff was the absolute crap, firstly in a sense that that is not what Rahat’s real talent is and secondly it disturbed the flow. When he sang dillagi & halka halka saroor it was magic all around but it got disturbed with that x y z stuff from bollywood.

Really, Rahat has got a huge talent. While singing for more than 2 hours not a single time his voice went out of sur or pitch went low. To give such a performance one needs to have some potential which was clearly visible. Due to the kind of idiotic Indian crowd that comes to attend such shows, they are expected to sing such bollywood numbers and for the same they need to keep drums and other things in orchestra. Otherwise from a qawali point of view, mouth organ & another instrument (probably keyboard) were sounding too loud. There probably was some issue with the sound setup as well. Also clapping sound was not audible and harmonium & tabla were also lost in the drums sound. The whole orchestra was being driven by the mouth organ not by harmonium. Despite of all this, it was an awesome, amazing performance by Rahat and i would love to watch him again & again; best probably at some place where he would sing only qawalis.

Now coming to all the bullshit that happens in India. As expected the arrangement was pathetic. They divided it into 3 sections. First was some VVVVVIP shit, second one for the people who had 2000 Rs tickets and third for the people carrying 1500 Rs tickets. And oh yes there was one ticket for Rs 1000 also and i think those people were standing at the end. The 2000 Rs ticket section was just 20-30% full and people from the 3rd section were trying to enter there but being stopped by security. Finally the revolution erupted, people jumped (man aunties also ) over the fencing and everybody was sitting in the 2nd section leaving the 3rd one empty.

About the people, as usual they just go there because they can afford to go. One thing i don’t understand is that while going to such an event cant they dump their kids at home ? And oh yes is it for the first time in their life that they get to see ice cream, coke, spring rolls etc over there ? Why the heck they cant take care of their tummies before coming to such shows ? Then every alternate person was getting up and fetching coke ++ stuff for their family of dozen plus items etc etc.

Despite all this, it was an amazing experience to watch Rahat perform live. Wish to see many more such concerts !!!

Me and my roomie went to KFC yesterday and ordered 2 burgers and a PEPSI & another drink (hey it was mango krusher , an overpriced mango shake in simple language   ). There was not much rush but even then it took around 20 mins or so to get the order. I was just wondering that how the quality of service at these western outlets (I think, it holds true for some hi-fi Indian restaurants as well) like KFC, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, mix veg style food courts etc etc sucks big time as compared to our very own desi dhabaz. It is almost a very regular thing that they will take good 15 mins to take your order, will take another half an hour to serve it and there are around 25% or so chances that they will not serve the right order. And never forget the time required to get the bill, pay it and get your card or balance back !

On the other side, take our very own dhabaz. Pretty good of them always have full halls to serve. Even then they manage to take everyone’s order in 5 mins, get back to you in another 5 and that too with the right order. I started my first job in Mohali and there was very famous Khalsa Dhaba in Phase 5. In the morning & evening it always used to be full and i can bet that you will never sit in waiting state and seeing that nobody is there to take your order, you have sabzi but not chapati etc etc. And one guy, after taking orders from 5 or 6 tables, will manage to get all the things right and also tell the guy sitting at the counter that on which table what order was served (including number of chapatiz !!!).

So what exactly makes this difference ? And the difference is not slight; it is huge ! For me personally, it gets even irritating to wait so much !

Day before yesterday morning, while coming back from office after doing a night lost my wallet somewhere. Man it is so disturbing. Firstly due to the loss of so many important things and secondly due the feeling of carelessness i am getting that i couldn’t take care of it and lost it somewhere like this. Absolutely no clues how and where it happened but i am feeling so so bad about it .

Another cause of headache for last two weeks have been finding a new accommodation. So many things related to this one suck, so we have been planning to change it since long. Finally when some stuff got out of control, we had to take the decision and start the hunt. Man it is such a shitty job. Finally after 2 weeks or so and compromising a bit on our choice and all, finalized one and will be shifting by this month end.

On the little better side, finally managed to watch Rajneeti yesterday night. A good movie after pretty long time. Nana Patekar, Manoj Bajpai and especially Ranbir Kapoor gave brilliant performances. Katrina did a pretty nice job too. A good enjoyment overall.

Looks like an incomplete post . Not much to write, just hoping for the things to be in little better order in coming time .

While reading editorials one thing that always strikes my mind is that what part of it is close to truth and what part is just what the writer thinks. A week back or so i read an article in Times of India and it just made me almost go mad. So to release some frustration and comment on what the reality is, thought of writing a post. I am just taking quotes from the article and posting comments on them. Your comments are welcome 

Back in 2002, India claimed to produce 350,000 engineers per year. But this included “diploma engineers” who were not true engineers at all. India actually had only 102,000 real engineering graduates in 2002. This went up to 222,000 in 2006 and may be double that in 2011.

Yes ! That was dependent upon number of colleges. When IT was booming after recession in 2004, Comp Engg was a hot cake so Engg College an awesome business. That is what gave rise to opening of engineering colleges like karyana shops.

India does have some excellent engineering schools, but McKinsey estimates that only 25% of Indian engineering graduates are good enough to work for multinationals (and only 15% of finance graduates and 10% of those with degrees of any kind).

Yes true again because these are not collegses. There are currency printing shops. They are charging high fees and collecting some good money. Who cares about the quality and standard of the education provided ?

Yet in 2007, India’s five largest IT services companies added 120,000 engineering jobs, and IBM and Accenture added another 14,000. Pharma R&D companies boomed. And foreign car companies made India an export and R&D hub to capitalize on its engineering skills.

Because the IT work was being outsourced to India like anything and Indian companies needed to show employee strength to catch those projects. They needed the head count and the easiest way to get that was to go to campus and hire masses.

In recruitment, Indian companies stopped looking at resumes. Good resumes often reflect an ability to write good resumes, not real skills. Instead, Indian companies put applicants through psychometric tests and rigorous interviews to identify general abilities and aptitude, rather than specialized skills. Instead of hiring only from elite engineering colleges, companies like Infosys and TCS recruited from second- and third-tier colleges, and also from arts and science schools.

Bullshit ! Perhaps, except top institues like IIT and others, where else the graduates know how to make their CVs. Almost all of them look the same, talking about some small projects done there and other academic details.

Multinationals preferred to recruit people with established skills. But Indian companies realized that recruits had to be trained from scratch. Many companies virtually became universities, employing hundreds of trainers.The Infosys Global Education Centre at Mysore trains 13,500 people at a time. For arts and science recruits, TCS provides an additional three months of training. In all, many recruits get four to seven months of training before starting work.

So, as per the author, this is the real juice but in reality its such a superior quality bullshit that you won’t believe it. First thing, only biggies can afford to send people on tranings for months (And boy that has been reduced to 1/3 or less, in the name of cost cutting). Second important thing is that in which company people are trained & made to work on the same technology ? Whatever little i have come across in 6 years of my careers is that A is trained on Technology X, made to work on Y; B is trained on Y made to work on Z; C is trained on Z, made to sit on bench. Where the heck do you see that knowledge grabbed from the tranining being used ? Its almost nowhere. And id you saw it somewhere, that must be accidental.

This would be impossibly expensive in the West. It is economic in India. Thus, low-cost training has been transformed into an international advantage, giving India a competitive edge in high-tech exports.

Cheap labor ! Thats it !

Training is a continuous process, not just in technical issues but also in management skills, quality consciousness, communications, foreign language and personal-effectiveness skills. Companies commonly mandate one to four weeks of yearly training. The career development and salaries of staff are linked to skills acquired from training. Mentorship by senior executives is another key Indian practice. Cadence India has a “leaders-as-teachers” program: every manager must spend one to two weeks teaching internal classes. Even the CEO is not exempt.

What the heck ?

Managers are groomed through fast-track programs for the best-performing employees, who then get preference for promotion. Once, Indian companies desperately sought foreign-returned managers. Today, they can find better talent locally. Returnees from abroad can have a hard time getting a good job.

Hahaha..lol…

Employees get reviewed at the end of every project and are prescribed training if found to have weaknesses. Mechanisms such as 360-degree reviews (wherein you review your bosses and peers) and balanced scorecard reviews are widely used.

360 degree reviews ? Dude say something against your manager and see your rating. You would come to know what this 360 degree shit is !!!

Managers are evaluated on a variety of non-financial measures, including employee satisfaction, attrition rates and mentoring.

Another factor that is missed is that how much a manager can butter his boss !

The software industry complains of a high attrition rate — up to 30% employees leave every year. But this means that companies end up training people not just for themselves but for the whole industry. That is one more secret of India’s success.

Money dude ! People can get good money by changing jobs every year. So that drives the attrition rates !

Enough of crap. No more energy left in me. So leaving it here for your judgment considering what the reality is !

And see; this article was published in Times of India, India’s so called No 1 English newspaper. And someone who is not aware of the actual situation in Indian IT would think that don’t know what kind of high-tech rocket making India was into .

Most of the Indians go to see live concerts because:

• They are the people with approach and can manage to get free VIP passes and all.
• They are from rich section of the society and can manage to buy tickets (if any).
• Attending live concerts is a feel good thing and a bit of fun.

The real fans of artists are generally sitting in last rows, or even worse; standing. The folks sitting in VVIP and VIP sections are the the output of above 3 points. Anyways yesterday night there was a live concert of Ghulam Ali and me and 2 of my friends were ready to enjoy and had high hopes. So we got the tickets well in advance to avoid any “not available” etc etc situation. The time printed on the ticket was of 7 PM and 2 other singers were supposed to perform before Ghulam Ali. So we reached the venue around 6:15 to find that they had just started to setup the stage and other stuff. Nothing much strange as India runs like that only. Finally after 8 PM they started entering people and we got good seats. Weather was being tricky and a rainfall was a sure thing to happen. Finally things started moving a bit and it started drizzling as well. They introduced some local signer on stage and he left after singing 1 song. Then came the two expected ones; a man and a lady and till then it was no more drizzling; it was raining. Things continued but people were waiting for Ghulam Ali only.

Then after 9:30 Ghulam Ali came (rain had stopped by then) and was seated in the first row with some chief guests and that guy and the lady were still singing.  Now  those guys were not supposed to waste any time but he still continued. Many people had even left till this moment. Ghulam Ali took the control of stage around 9:45. It has been just half an hour or little more that  police came to get it closed due to 10:30 PM limit. Somehow somebody talked to them and the matter was sorted out but probably for some time only. After sometime a policeman came in front of the stage, raised his hands and asked them to stop ! Man just imagine, an artist of the stature of Ghulam Ali singing on stage and a policeman, in this way, telling him to stop; what a crying shame !!! What the heck the organizers were doing at that time ? Anyways Ghulam Ali did acknowledge him and said “shayad woh keh rahe hain k hum yeh band kar dein…bas 2 min mein kar dete hain….” Ghulam Ali said the final words and started to leave.

Then the stage was taken over by the host. He got pretty emotional and said that some xyz of Delhi is sitting here (some counselor or something was sitting there in guests). The night clubs can run up to 4 AM. There is not an issue with that but a ghazal mehfil cant continue after 10:30 PM. Then some action was taken and permission was given for another half an hour or so. Then Ghulam Ali started again but the taste has been lost till then. So things were just not that good.

And about the ambiance and other things there i just don’t understand what the heck is the need for people to bring their 0-14 yrs kids along. And then eating chips, sipping soft drinks…ghazal mehfils are for that ? On stage on guy is going up, another coming down etc etc. One sick idiot was standing in front of the stage and shooting with his video camera, Ghulam Ali requested him twice to stop but everything fell on deaf ears. Then two security guards came and literally pushed him away. Still he was not ready to move. Enough of  crap…

Lets talk about the whatever little Ghulam Ali saab sang…well he started with Ghalib’s har ek baat pe kehte ho with an opening sher from ishq mujhko nahi vahashat hi sahi……then came Faraz saab’s hui hai shaam to aankhon mein bas gaya hai fir tu followed by dil mein ik lehar si uthi hai abhi; amazingly done. Every time the word leher being presented with different sur taal and style. Pure magic ! After that pehli wari aj uhna akhian ne takkia. And then in hurry few others like awargi and hum tere shahar mein aaye hain.

At the end it was a magical show spoiled by few idiots ! We came back so sad and disappointed. An oppurtunity to watch such a great artist lost

And for the friends who would like to know what what according to me a ghazal mehfil should be like, please watch these videos. This is what magic a ghazal mehfil can create.

Just trying to test a small post from iPhone

So far so good

I was browsing through The Times of India website and came across a link to a video of a performance by Abida Parveen at a recent Aman ki Asha concert. I had already seen this video many times but this time more than the video, a comment caught my attention. Quoting here the same:

Roopa, bangalore, says: OMG what a horrible singer with horrible voice.. Somebody without training could sing better then her….

Nothing much to say. vichari poor soul…she doesn’t even know what she is talking about. God bless her that she, sometime in future understands what Abida Parveen means to music and its lovers across the globe.