Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Workaholic Wednesday

Mid-week blues is the right way to describe the day.  Arguments, conference calls, discussions and presentation making concluded the day. Planning for next day started in the elevator while it stopped at various floors through its journey from 12th floor.

I walked out of the office building to a beautiful sight of a setting sun. Manicured, freshly mowed green lawns on the sides of a water body that runs into a small fountain, frangipani trees flowering at the borders of the lawn, watered flower beds and peeping from behind the trees - a big round orange ball. Smell of flowers hit as I walked towards the massive iron gates.

Calm and peace flowed through me and stayed throughout the chaotic one hour drive to delhi.  Can we not take more time to smell the flowers, see the natural beauty, listen to birds and just enjoy the everyday things around us while we go around earning our living everyday?

To a thoughtful Thursday,
Pooja

Monday, April 8, 2013

To the Iron Will...

RIP Margaret Thatcher!

For the generation of us born in 70s, the names of Margaret Thatcher along with Indira Gandhi and Sirimavo Bandaranaike was synonymous not only for the women politicians, but also for the women who made their mark as the first women Prime Ministers of their countries.

In that era where the women liberation was still gaining ground, these strong women shattered the glass ceiling in the hitherto male dominated profession. For the common women though, professional life was still a struggle, except in some old fashioned professions like teaching; the society by and large was still safe and tolerable for women to live and let live.

Three and half decades later, the glass ceiling has been broken many a times. The role models are many a plenty, in almost all professions. And the changes are visible around us, largely in the intolerable behaviour of still a male dominated society. The roads are unsafe and so are homes. Women liberation has happened, but at the cost of the lives of those very women.

So while the world remembers the Iron Lady and her legacy, will it be also be relevant to remind certain sections of society that "Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't."

In salutation and in hope that the Iron Will in us never rusts,
Pooja
April 8, 2013



Sunday, April 7, 2013

Dil maange more!

Another classical musical evening, a slice of Banaras, and memories of time gone by. Listening to three generations of violin player playing together, N Rajam with her daughter and grand-daughter, transported me to my childhood days, when she shared the boundary wall with my masi, and we could hear the strains of violin almost throughout the day. The joy on their faces as they played the classical ragas, the seamless coordination between the trio and the mutual encouragement to each other showed a shared warmth of similar such rituals and practices. The Banarasi in her could not resisted playing a Bhajan celebrating ramnavami as well as a Banarasi dhun. This performance was not only the showcase of Indian culture of teaching, guru-shishya parampara, but also of the myriad musical culture the country has.

From instrumental to vocal, it was the turn of Pandit Jasraj to take the stage. My first introduction to him was also at Banaras, at the Sankat Mochan Sangeet Samaroh - an annual musical festival in the temple. He is the reason why I started listening to Hindustani classical vocal music few years back, and today I fell in love again. On the menu today was Bhakti Ras, and he spread the Ras in the audience. I have listened to him couple of times in the last two years, but it was different today, almost magical. For me personally, it was to hear him singing live my favourite compositions that truly made my day.

A lovely evening which came to an end too soon ... The music still haunting me as the day too comes to an end.

Do I dare say I want more of this,
Pooja.
April 6, 2013