I was walking fanatically and was not satisfied with my pace at all. I didn’t have time. Come on, increase your speed!
I saw a child sitting on the road, sulking and weeping at the same time. The road was deserted. No! it was not, I found out when I browsed the roads. Across the road a little girl of five or six years was standing, puzzled and confused.
I asked, “Why is he weeping?”
She replied, “He hit him.”
“Who is he? And where is he?” I scanned the road again, failing to notice another child.
“He is hiding behind that tree?”
“Do you know both of these boys?” She seemed related to them.
“Yes! Both of them are my brothers.”
I went near the girl and whispered in confidential tone, “Ask your he-man brother to go near him, help him getting up, and then both of them should shake hands.”
She agreed.
I remembered, I was going to do some work. I must hurry. Others were waiting for me.
I finished my task in time, was returning home with a satisfied grin.
Again I spotted the trio. This time they were together. What a stamina their mother might have possessed to produce them barely at a gap of one year each and what a remarkable professional she might be to leave them on street and devoting her time to sell vegetables.
“Well, tell me have they shaken hands?” I quizzed.
“Yes! They have.” She answered, looking amused.
“How?” I was not satisfied, “Show me, how both of you did shake hands?”
They reproduced the gesture for me.
“OK! Have they embraced each other too?”
“What is gale milna (embracing)?”
“Come near me. I will show you.”
One of the daring types came near me. I taught him using demonstration method how to hug his brother. Now it was their turn to show me how they learnt this art. We all were ignoring curious passers by.
Two little figures hugged and I made them remember that in future whenever they are going to fight, after shedding all the tears and anger, they must shake hands and hug each other. They promised me to do exactly that. I didn’t the have the feeling of preaching anything to anyone.
While returning home I was walking at a leisurely pace and had a wider stupid grin on my face.

My (old) poem is a day late.
=============================================
Expectant faces,
Fearful faces,
Peeping out of windows.
Office hours had JUST begun
But how could life be over?
Suddenly, definitely, precisely
And clinically for everyone.

We were just balancing
The morning coffee in one hand,
And files in another?
A lightening struck,
To plunge everything
And everyone in darkness.

Would we melt together
With concrete and mortar?
Was it our destiny
To be one with steel girdles?
And not with mother earth?

What had we done
In our lives,
To not deserve a few feet
Below the earth?
But to evaporate
With the vapor of morning coffee?

What the self styled Hero and Heroine of Bihar are doing? Nothing much!India’s National Anthem is being played on, and it might be their way of showing respect!

Thank you Sandeep for letting me publish this picture on my blog.

I was more or less a typical teenager, snorting at everything that belonged to my parent’s era. I took special delight in ridiculing “their” songs, terming them boring, dull and too slow. But with time, I grew up. When I encountered the real emotional and mental upheavals in life, I realize the raw beauty and timelessness of those good old songs. It was obvious how much effort the lyricist, composers and singers had put in those songs.

I was just delving into the psyche of remix makers. Where will they stop? If one day, they discover that Meera, Kabir Das, Sur Das and Tulsi Das’s creations are the latest fads, will they manufacture remixes of these poet’s creations too? Doesn’t their attitude match with a rapist or sodomist? Just like rapists, they violate the sanctity of a song. At least, in India, they never ask for permission, and simply force their “noise” in the original song. What motivates them? What is their inspiration? Can they better the original creation? Can they bring more appealing visuals than the bygone era? What will they think? If skimpily clad bunch of ladies will perform Brownian movement from here to there, will they overshadow the sensuality of original ladies on whom the songs were picturized? I fail to see if they have achieved a single purpose.

But I have forgotten to analyze the biggest motivator, the green bucks called money. I know inspiration is very difficult to hit these mercenaries. By hook or crook, they just want to laugh all the way to bank. Nothing is wrong with that. But they can earn money without committing rape (or sodomy, if some of them are gays) to these original songs. Why can’t they restrict themselves to item numbers? Everybody enjoys the beat, the music, the mood and the ladies gyrating to the song. At least some effort is required to create these numbers from scratch. You don’t lift someone else work, paste it with your stamp and claim it as your own.

The other section that can discourage these sorts of creations is generation X. But when their guardians don’t have time to stand and stare and smell the roses, even for themselves, it’s too much to expect from these producers that they will take quality time out from their busy schedules and introduce their wards to real things. Their schools and colleges also make sure that students don’t have time to explore anything on their own. The latest refuse of the parents is to enroll their progenies in the personality development classes and think smugly that their responsibilities are over. The shoulders of the grooming instructors are too slim and pretty to bear this burden. The child will emerge out as a good “product” from the grooming classes. This product will walk, talk, eat and dance in the latest customized fashion. Individuality of the child can go to hell.

So it is left to this generation to discover the old magical songs. It is their sheer luck or chance, if they stumble upon the original creations. None of the TV channels broadcast these songs for a considerable duration of time on daily basis. That seems odd. Why they don’t broadcast these songs? Are music companies playing a role in policy making of music channels? Afterall if people are so enamored with remixes, what’s the harm in broadcasting old songs on daily basis for a while? What fear factor is stopping them?

I don’t know if remix manufacturers have conscience and it bothers them when they sleep. Maybe when everything evaporates with time and they have none of the glitz and glamour left to cling to, they might realize what they had done with the timeless creations. But that’s me being too optimistic. I think someone with right kind of zeal will file a PIL against these THEFTS and it would be left to judiciary to correct this anomaly. Remixes will not disappear but manufacturers might have to take permission from the rightful owners. A law might be enacted to offer a portion of the royalty to the real inheritors. This will minimize the remix manufacturer’s profit margins and curb this blatant tendency of theft.