Sometimes in our life, we do things that we had planned for a very long time. For instance, I am finally typing out something, however irrelevant, bringing my long dead blog back to life. I have heard the dictum that one should write only when he/she has something to say. Well, that’s not the case with me. For some reason, I am just quite lost, without having anything to say to the larger world. Those fanciful images of being a writer often confront me, but those are quickly shut away by a slowly building pragmatism on how things really pan out. Anyways, lets hope for the best. One more shot at trying something .. the goal, as always, is to maintain the flow, something I have never managed to do!

If you have the time, check this link:

Gilles Peterson, BBC [music recommended my a friend, quite chill]

It’s been a while. Riding back home, I thought of the many things that needed to be done and followed up. Things that I had taken up, but forgotten along the way. Promise shown, but interest not maintained. I had studied a level 1 course in Spanish from the Instituto Hispania in Bangalore a couple of years back, but I am yet to pick up my certificate. In the interim, I have forgotten the little Spanish that I had picked up. Then there was this intention to study German – I got hold of a ‘Learn German in 30 days’ book, but after a couple of days trying to memorise stuff, I let things drift. To make things worse, not a trace of the French that I had learned for a couple of years in college, remains.

In April 2003, if I remember correctly, my dad bought me a brand new guitar, keen on helping me out in my fledgling foray into music. I attended five classes and then dropped out for a variety of reasons. I have tried to revive the learning on a couple of occasions, but those attempts could not be sustained. My guitar weeps as it lies on a loft in my room, spoilt by the dust and damaged by a broken top-string – what is that called again?

I began reading ‘Girl With A Pearl Earring’ – was enjoying it actually. After a 100-odd pages, I downloaded its movie adaptation, saw a bit of that, and never touched the book again.

Life is passing me by, while I do nothing about some basic things. Perhaps, writing this down will get me back on track.

Before I forget – I have promised so many friends to burn cds of movies…..

SECRET AGENT OR DRIVE BY?

You have to check out Keith Causton’s show – ‘Life as told by Keith’. It should brighten up your day. Ah, that reminds me. I have to start using my darned webcam.

Well, this is a collage of stuff I recently stumbled across which relate to Africa – the mother continent. First off, check out the video for Senegal Fast Food, a collaboration between the blind Malian musical couple Amadou et Mariam and Manu Chao [the-difficult- to-bracket singer-songwriter]. This is from the album Dimanche a Bamako (Sunday in Bamako), which was produced by Chao.

The movie which left me wanting more was the Last King of Scotland, based Giles Foden’s novel of the same name. James McAvoy plays the bubbly Dr.Nicholas Garrigan, a Scottish doctor who spins the globe and decides to travel to Uganda. In this fictional tale, he meets Idi Amin [a role which fetched Forest Whitaker the best actor Oscar] – after which a friendship and the subsequent betrayal take place. Kerry Washington, who played Kay Amin – one of Amin’s wifes, was captivating whenever she appeared on screen.

Kerry Washington at the Tribeca Film Festival

Image Copyright: David Shankbone

And then there was late Ali Farka Toure, the Malian Blues legend. On a trip to Bangalore from Timbaktu , my gang of friends were swayed by his tunes. Check out this video.

Chris Abani, the Nigerian author, talks about poetry and narrative in the African context during a speech delivered at a Ted.com conference

To end this African Odyssey, I present to you Zerenesay Alemseged, the Ethiopian Athropologist, who talks about the origins of humankind – again in a Ted.com session.

END NOTE: Do visit Ted.com

After a year and a half of procrastination, I have started on the process of actualization. There is a feeling that things, at least with regard to the next few years, will work out.

And this time, I am giving it my all. The voyage will happen.

The eagle has decided to fly to the land of his origin. He hopes to hear the familiar sounds of the forest he used to inhabit. He needs to sit on a branch and reflect on cities visited and friends made. Family, which had called on him occasionally in his dreams, has taken priority.

Soaring high, he looks down at the hazy green. His feathery friends fly next to him. This trip is an important one … it has been two years in the making, and that fact that it is on is a testament to their friendship.

When the night calls, the congregation will sit in a circle and converse. The insects, animals and other birds will sing. The humans will sleep. The wind, notorious for its winter intensity shall not trouble them. Hopefully the stream will flow, rounding off the astral orchestra;

The eagle needs calm. The eagle needs resurrection. What better place to start than the place that made him who he is.

When will my rescue dawn come. Okay fine, I am not a Lt. Dieter Dengler, stuck in a jungle somewhere in Laos. I am just another guy living in a prison of my own creation. Some people say that you can be the master of your own destiny, but I must get off my ass and face my future head on. But yeah right… sitting on my sofa, watching some crap on the news… that looks unlikely.

Just saw this collaboration between Zero 7 and Danish singer-song writer Tina Dico [or Dickow], who performed on an episode of Jimmy Kimmel.

I just finished watching ‘In the land of women’ and its been a while since I have seen such a compelling film. Adam Brody, plays the role of Carter, a porno-scriptwriter, 26, who visits his grandma to escape from the anguish of being dumped by his celeb girlfriend [Alena Anaya - Ref. Sex and Lucia]. There he meets daughter and mother [Kirsten Stewart and Meg Ryan], and well, change happens. I know what you all will be thinking. Hmm… never mind. I liked it.

Anyways, I liked the movie because it made me aware of the beautiful and not so beautiful aspects of change; and how one needs to take whatever comes, along with the hope that things will eventually get better. And, the aspiring scriptwriter in me has been temporarily reawakened.

You know how, in the movies, when a guy is writing this script, it seems so surreal and the lighting is just perfect. When he is typing, the sounds of the keyboard make you smile and wish you could hear that same sound while you were typing your own insignificant story. And, in all these movies, you have got that cute chick, who actually reads what you have written, and who suddenly enters the writers life. How, all the characters have some shit going on in their lives, so, when they meet, there is conversation from both ends.

And as the title suggests, the protagonist enters the land of women, a land, so different and interesting, that this writer feels let down by his own surroundings.

The moon is bright.

Beneath, the minions head toward the watering hole and douse the gloom in their lives. The mind, if not controllable, must be put to rest, and time should lose its significance. But these are bad influences right? Aren’t you supposed to take charge of your life and do something with it? There are so many things happening around, and so, how can one be concerned only about their own lives?