Playlist

While I was browsing I felt like listening to some music. Didn't have anything particular in mind. And wasn't in a state of mind to get into the trouble of skimming through the song collection and creating a playlist either. A random playlist was what I wanted.
Linux does have feature rich music players like banshee or clementine which might have a feature to create automatic playlist. Mine is very basic. So I had to get it done with a single line of bash command.

find Music -type f  | shuf -n 100 > playlist.m3u

And there it was, a new playlist with 100 songs. Just like that. Btw this isn't to show my bash scripting proficiency 😉. Google did most of the work. I just consolidated it. Felt good though. And I would love to believe it wasn't laziness. Just didn't feel like doing it then.

Like they say laziness is the mother of discovery.

Shadows

We ran up to him.
He looked frightened and shocked
He tried to run.
But our blades caught up with him.
He fell, he cried
A wounded prey.
We stopped when he cried no more.
And others cried for him.

They say life is a cycle.
It catches up to you someday.

I turn back I see shadows.
The ones with sharp blades.
I try to run and hide.
They chase me everywhere.
A cornered prey.
The shadows are here.
I am too tired to run.
I cry, I plead.
They don't stop until I could cry no more,
 and others cry for me.

Words

Words are echoing in my mind.
There is no coherent thought in them.
They just jump around in an urge to get out. 
Me first me first, they say.
They don't realise they aren't ready to walk on their own.
They have to stand behind an idea and grow.
Or they are mere words without a soul.

Few are a bit more braver than the rest.
They group with their half brothers and create unrest, even getting heard at times.

They wander aimlessly for a while, gliding along any path they see.
For they don't have a destination in their mind and are lost without doubt

The newbies see their brothers' fate from afar.
They fear to set forth or even make a sound.
They wait for someone strong to take them ashore.
They wait and get old.
They get choked and never get heard.

Words.

Joppan Or Murugan

All the hullabaloo over the movies Puli murugan and Thoppil Joppan is far too idiotic I must say. Mammootty and Mohanlal are legends. We don't want anyone to keep reminding us how good they are. We already know that for a fact. In their respective long careers, along with many masterpieces they have given us mediocre and outright rubbish movies. That's the part and parcel of the job they have chosen. And it is not necessary that we have to celebrate each one of them. If it is not good, it is not good. Simple as that. They know that too. But we as fans can't accept it. We have to prove our favourite actor's movie has done better than his counterpart's recent work.

We, Malayalis, are considered smart and reasonable people. But we don't look so smart indulging in mudslinging and throwing insults in their names. It's not that I don't get the concept of Internet trolling or so. Just that  it doesn't look so healthy. But that is not what that really concerns me. While we fight over their mediocre works and make it successful in theatres, a movie like Guppy fails to make an impact. A movie like Sudhivalmikam is less celebrated here.  They have to make way for bigger movies. Sadly, big not in the sense of content. 

Kavi Udheshichathu, a movie that got released alongside Joppan and Murugan, is more likely to be stifled irrespective of whether it is good or not.

It's high time that we grow up.

Northeast Journals

ഒരു നൊമാഡൻ യാത്ര. 

നോർത്ത് ഈസ്റ്റ് യാത്രയിൽ നിന്ന് ഒരു ഏട്

സ്ഥലം അരുണാചൽ എ കെ എ ഓർണാചൽ..

നോർത്ത് ഈസ്റ്റ് എത്തി കൊണ്ടിരിക്കുന്ന യാത്രക്കാരുടെ എണ്ണം കൂടി കൊണ്ടിരിക്കുന്നു എന്ന തിരിച്ചറിവിൽ അരുണാചലിൽ ചില ഭാഗങ്ങളിൽ റോഡ് വികസനം നടക്കുന്നുണ്ട്.  ഞങ്ങൾ അവിടം ചെന്നപ്പോൾ, അതിന്റെ ഭാഗമായി മണ്ണും പാറയും ഒക്കെ മണ്ണുമാന്തിയുടെ ആക്രമണം നേരിട്ടു കൊണ്ടിരിക്കുകയായിരുന്നു. എല്ലാവർക്കു നല്ല റോഡുകൾ വേണം. പക്ഷേ അത് നിർമ്മിച്ചു കൊണ്ടിരിക്കുന്ന അവസ്ഥയിൽ യാത്ര ചെയ്യൽ നല്ല സുഖമുള്ള ഏർപ്പാട് അല്ല, പ്രത്യേകിച്ച് ഒരു ബൈക്കിന്റെ പുറത്ത്. 

 

പിന്നെയുള്ളത് വികസനം എത്തി ചേർന്നിട്ടില്ലാത്ത ഗർത്തങ്ങൾ നിറഞ്ഞ റോഡുകൾ ആണ്. ഇതൊക്കെ കൊണ്ട്  പലപ്പോഴും വലിയ മണിക്കൂറുകളിൽ ചെറിയ കിലോമീറ്ററുകൾ താണ്ടി  ഒച്ചിന്റെ വേഗത്തിൽ ആയിരുന്നു  ഞങ്ങളുടെ  യാത്ര. 

കുഴികളിൽ ചാടി ഇറങ്ങി നടുവൊടിഞ്ഞ് ഒരു പരുവമാകുമ്പോൾ നടു നിവർത്താൻ വഴിയിൽ കാണുന്ന ചായകടയിൽ നമ്മൾ ഒന്ന് നിർത്തും. സ്വല്പം ചായ അകത്താക്കി  മുറി ഹിന്ദിയിൽ നമ്മൾ ചോദിക്കും

ഭൈയ്യാ ആഗേ രാസ്ത കൈസാ ഹൈ??

നമ്മളെ ഒന്ന് അടിമുടി നോക്കി അവർ പറയും.
 

ആഗെ തൊ റ്റീക് ഹൈ.

പ്രതീക്ഷ ആശ്വാസം സന്തോഷം എല്ലാം കൂടെ മനസ്സിൽ ഒരുമിച്ചു വരും

പിന്നെ വെറുതെ ഒരു ഉറപ്പിനു വേണ്ടി പൊട്ടി പൊളിഞ്ഞ് കിടക്കുന്ന റോഡ്‌ ചൂണ്ടി കാണിച്ച്‌ കൊണ്ട് നമ്മൾ ചോദിക്കും.

"ഇസസേ അച്ചാ തോ  ഹോഗാ നാ ?"

യേ തോ അച്ഛാ ഹേ നാ. ഇന്സേ തോടി ഘരാബ് ഹേ. ഓർണാചൽ മേ റോഡ് തോ ഏസാ ഹീ ഹോതാ ഹേ..

ഇതെന്തോന്ന് റോഡ് ഹേ എന്ന് മനസ്സിൽ വിചാരിച്ച് ചായയുടെ കാശും വെച്ച് യാത്ര വീണ്ടും തുടരും.

Sabro ki Zindagi jo Khatham nahi ho jati hain. 

ആസനം വേദനിച്ചുള്ള ഈ യാത്ര അത്ര പെട്ടെന്നൊന്നും തീരൂല്ലാന്ന്.

Gangs of Gurgaon

I remember reading about Adrenaline in my school biology lessons. It is the major hormone released during the fight-or-flight(stress) response.  It takes necessary measures in our body for us to make a move -  to fight, if that doesn't work, to run from an imminent danger.

There are two balconies in our new place in DLF city, Gurgaon. A grand front balcony where we occasionally sip our morning black tea enjoying a cool breeze and a back balcony overlooking the apartment where Elisha Cuthbert, the girl next door, is staying. That is the place where we put our washed dress for drying. 

Our area doesn't look like a typical DLF phase 3 lane. It is clean, less crowded and quiet. It really is a nice place provided you can tolerate the presence of few monkeys. Let me add, more often than not they mind their own business without giving people too many reasons to complain.

I had put washed clothes out to dry on the balcony. Until then I had not known that a group of monkeys frequent our balcony. From my room there is a wooden door and a net door partition that leads to the balcony. Through the net door, I saw them.One of my clothes that I had kept for drying was lying down on the floor, and a little monkey, watched over by a fairly bigger one, was playing with it. It was trying to tear it off into pieces, it seemed to me. 

Without any bother the bigger monkey was sitting in-front of the door watching the smaller one playing. From behind the door I made noises to scare it off. It just sat there and watched without even moving a muscle. After some time when it went a bit farther away from the door I stepped out to the balcony, jumped up and down and made some noises. 

Lesson learned: Don't try to scare off a monkey-kid pair. If kid gets frightened monkey sr. will consider you as a threat  and will go to fight mode to scare you off. 

Little monkey got scared with my activity. Its adrenaline charged and its little brain sent signals to make a flight. In that confined space it made a frantic attempt to run.  Big monkey might have thought I had intentions to harm its kid. Again adrenaline charged. But this time, to my dismay, it sent instructions to fight. Monkey's face muscles twitched, eyes got enlarged and it flared. In a fraction of a second it was on to me. I saw the bigger monkey running towards me. It meant business. 

What is the correct usage, run for your good life or run with your good life? I dunno which one is better. It didn't matter then. Adrenaline was up-to it and I ran. Without wasting any moment i got back to my room and closed the door.  It came running in-front of the door and snarled at me. Yes It did mean business.  In the comfort and security of my room I forgot about my shirt and  I looked at it without much of a twitch  

                  

                  " Try scaring me now"

Chi Chak Cho !!

        It's really interesting how memory works. Often, random things evoke memories, memories so old, you didn't know even existed in the first place. I find it really peculiar. Mine definitely. For as long as I can remember, I have had trouble remembering!!. Trivial or significant, it made no difference. 

A friend of mine @Anjoosee had randomly tweeted something and it took me for a stroll down memory lane. So I was pleasantly surprised when I suddenly recollected a song a friend of mine used to sing almost 2 decades back. Not that I could recollect the entire song, but I was able to reproduce the general mood of the song, how it sounded and some of the lyrics. 

Resmin, my old school mate, had joined our school, Rani Jai HS nearby old  and prestigious Nirmalagiri College, in third standard. Before joining there he had done his schooling abroad and was really good in English. He could speak the language, and quite brilliantly too. Though our school followed an English medium education system no one did really speak a word in English back then. Hailing from different parts of Kannur there wasn't too much of a need for anyone to speak the language.  And for us Resmin was like an alien coming from a different planet. He became an instant hit. And definitely your star value won't hurt if you could sing few English songs. There was this particular song that he used to sing more often. He sang this song for almost an year until we made a full Malayali out of him. 

When I checked online, interestingly I found out that several before me had searched for the same song. China Man song it is purportedly known as and was really popular back then. Grandparents used to sing it to their grand kids and they shared it to their grand children and so on, much like a family food recipe.  Several variants of this particular song are available online and I took one which followed the pattern that I had in my mind. 

Here it goes.  

Once in China there lived a funny man
his name was chika waka chi chai cho
his hands were long and his legs were short
because of that he couldn't walk at all  

chika waka chika waka chi chaka noma 
noma noma noma pakatoto 
ichi pie po 
ichi pie ichi pie chi chai cho. 

Then then then the big fat man, 
washed his face in a frying pan,
he combed his hair with his big toenail
and brushed his teeth with a horse's tail 

chika waka chika waka chi chika noms
noma noma noma pakatoto
ichi pie po ichi pie ichi pie
chi chai cho
chi chai cho
chee chhaai chhooo.........

Note: I am not sure about the chorus -chika waka- part mentioned here is what he used to sing.  And like I said earlier there are several variants of this particular song online I just picked one which sounded fine to me. Resmin doesn't remember it much himself. 

He had shared a video with me when I told him about the song. 

May be this is one of my fondest memory of him from my school days and, which I guess, is the reason why it is still etched in my memory.