Wake Up Sid - My Take

One of the many conclusions that came out after watching Wake Up Sid is that, 'Ranbeer can act!' After seeing his last movie, Bachna Ae Haseeno, it kind of got into me that this chap is just another star son and probably won’t much of an actor. He for sure did turn the tables around and portrayed the ever exploited character of Indian youth with a new perspective and I must say, it didn’t look the usual stereotype, err… okay, at times he did but this was all with a fresh appeal.

The script has been nicely woven and the writer – director Ayan must be complimented with the efforts he puts in. He took the story taking to a new level. The movie revolves around the usual stuff, probably seen many times in the history of Indian cinema (C’mon, every movie has a clueless youngster, Dil Chahta Hain had, Lakshya had, Jane Tu Ya Jane Na had and they all did great).

The cliché breaking stint goes directly in the favour of the director and his wonderful rendition of the story that has been ringing in your sub conscious for a long time now. Oh, I forgot to mention, the performances by Ranbeer, Konkona, Anupoam Kher and Supriya Pathak are equally responsible for setting it a class apart.

The movie that revolves around a story of a clueless youngster (much like the ones from the trio of DCH) can boast about a gripping first half and you just can’t help yourself getting engrossed. The first half is pretty balanced with some great comic punches and fresh dialogues. Konkona plays an aspiring writer who comes down to Bombay (err… ‘Mumbai’, damn my freedom of speech) looks easy on the screen. It is because of her superb acting that once often forgets the fact that he is just watching a movie.

The second half is comparatively of a slightly lower quality as compared to the first. The comic punches miss out on the intensity and the frequency but that’s when the scenes that may cause a tear or two take over. The end could have been better and I wish there was more weight and logic to the long dialect of that of Konkana’s towards the end. I personally realized the movie ended too abruptly and I wish it didn’t ended so soon.

The father son interactions look nothing less than real and everyone could relate to the sequences where in Anupam Kher delivers one of its best as a successful business man and a defeated father. Surpiya Pathak is one fine actor and she reinforces the same portraying her character of a wannabe English speaking mom just in attempt to be closer to his son. I seriously think that no one could have carried off that role as well as she did.

Anil Mehta as a cinematographer did a brilliant job and some of the frames are captivating. The cinematographer actually enhances the beauty of the movie ten folds and backs up the director beautifully lending credibility and a bunch of marvels to the movie.

Music is once point where the movie seems to be lagging behind. You hardly notice the songs that were played in the first half because they didn’t appear to be even half as strong as the movie’s first half. Though, Wake Up Sid, the title track is an exception (the reason being, it was played during the opening titles) and is nicely rendered by Shankar Mahadevan. One can’t deny the fact that Iktara is a winner all the way and it is the only song other than the title song that stays with you, even after the movie is over.

The music is splendid in isolation but when put in the music, it just couldn’t meet my exception. I would rate music as 4.5 out of if the movie’s music is all what I had got. The lyrics are nice and fresh and it was great to see Javed Akhtar attempting songs like Life is Crazy. One major flaw with the background score is that it often gives you the impression of the song Maa (of Taarein Zameen Par) being played, I agree its SEL’s (Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy) best but the audience is not much in favour of repetitions. The background score at other instances wasn’t that impressive either but it picked up towards the end of the movie.

All in all, Wake Up Sid is made up of all small incidents and you just need to give into it rather than being critical to analyse or compare it with the previous versions of the same story. In order to enjoy the movie, it is advisable that you go with close friends, who share the desire to ‘watch’ with you rather than looking it as a weekend getaway and would go to any extent making fun of the intense situations in the movie. Chose your companion for this movie wisely and you it will be worthwhile.

I would rather give it 4 out of 5 and would recommend watching it for sure. It is something that should top the list of the movies-to-watch this week. I am yet to see Acid Factory (it releases next week) while Do Knot Disturb is typically David Dhavan. You never know, you may get inspired (or steal in ideas) in more than one way. So, try it!

Piyush Singh

www.piyushsingh.com

Copyrights: Piyush Singh - 2009-2010

Image Courtsey: Respective Websites

My Life's Biggest Award

Hello All,

Hope everyone is doing good. 3rd August 2009 is a date I would never forget. I would like to thank Ms. Aron, Senior Resident Editor of Hindustan Times Lucknow for giving me a chance to meet the former president of India, Hon'ble Mr. APJ Abdul Kalam. All in all, it was a great day and when he spoke, he had a mesmerizing impact on everyone present. But what followed a day after was indeed the biggest of honours. This is what HE has to say about one of my poems(you may see the poem at the bottom of this note) which is popularly known as Mamma Hold Me.

Dear Piyush,

Really your poem moved my heart and mind. It
is indeed inspiring. Particularly,

"The pain is like an angels call,
I see the smoke,
engulfing everyones life,
Mamma hold me"......

Dear Piyush, these poetic verses of yours are beautiful creation of
the creative mind.

May God Bless you.

Kalam

I remember, whenever Sunny and I meet, or whenever we speak about our songs or future projects, the Oscars seems like our ultimate possession, but let me tell you, this is indeed the biggest of the awards I could ever get in my life. These words by the man himself are more precious to me than even 100 oscars.

About Kalam: Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, was the eleventh President of India, serving from 2002 to 2007. During his term as The President, he was popularly known as the People's President, and a poll conducted by news channel CNN-IBN named him "India's Best President".

Before his term as India's president, he worked as an aeronautical engineer with DRDO and ISRO. He is popularly known as the Missile Man of India for his work on development of ballistic missile and space rocket technology.. In India he is highly respected as a scientist and as an engineer.

Mamma Hold Me

The promises I
failed to keep.
Now only my eyes,
see me weep.
Tears getting lost,
in the smoke somewhere.
Black burning bodies,
falling here and there.
Mamma hold me,
Please hold me
Mamma hold me,
Please hold me,
Mamma hold me,
Hold me in your arms


I know that I am going to die.
With wasted soul
and never opening eye,
I know that I am going to die.
With wasted soul
and never opening eye,
The pain is like an angels call
I see the smoke,
engulfing everyones life.
Mamma hold me,
Please hold me
Mamma hold me,
Please hold me,
Mamma hold me,
Hold me in your arms


Please ask daddy,
to be brave.
Put mammas child,
on my grave.
Please ask daddy,
to be brave.
Put mammas child,
on my grave.
Look for me in, every child you see.
Kiss their foreheads and,
you can feel me.
Mamma hold me,
Mamma hold me,
Mamma hold me,
Mamma hold me in your arms,
Mamma hold me in your arms,
Mamma hold me in your arms,
Mamma hold me in your arms.

Regards and Wishes

Piyush Singh

Pic Courtsey : Shikha Sharma

Bhaisahab, Rock Show Kya?

October 7th, 2006. I was excited for two reasons. Firstly-there were my people, both on stage and off stage. Don’t get suspicious when I say ‘my people’. Prestorika (my good friends) and the beautiful people from this awesome city who have tolerated me while my tryst with writing for over 3 years. Kudos to you all! Coming to second reason now, it was a well planned outing for me in that particular week and even I was getting a bit too bugged crashing on the couch and apparently was the potato replica there.

The venue was M.B. Club, Cantonment area and man; I landed there on time but wasn’t expecting my Prestorika folks to be there. I am glad that they turned down my expectations. Mr. Sidhu forgot his cell phone in Delhi so there was absolutely no means I could have made him aware of my arrival at the venue. Lokesh wasn’t valid in terms of cell phone, Vasav had switched off his cell and Nitesh was too busy over the phone to answer my call. Then, fortunately I caught hold of one of the guys from the organizing committee and I am glad he recognized me and let me in. He told me that ‘100 Octane’ (another band from Delhi) was also supposed to play after Prestorika and the band was busy in the sound checks. One strange thing, despite of the crowd, not many were obliged with the entry, they had dress codes, which said “No T-Shirts and Jeans- No entry”

Somehow, fortunate enough wearing a pair of ragged jeans and equally ragged T-Shirt; I, my bro and my cousin were let in. The stage looked awesome with my folks posing up there for the media. The ground was grand and it had everything to make it a perfect venue for the rock show but I still was wondering that why the organizers had chairs and somewhere garnished the venue with elite and executive sofas, but then my dear escort told me that it was for the elite people, IAS Officers who were keen on being the Page-3 celebrities in their part time. (Huh!)

Sidhu was still on stage and I yelled out his name, he turned back and he was more than happy to see me there. His happiness couldn’t be constrained in words and he started with “Behench**d”, f**k man, you have gained weight”. After exchanging some profanities and gentle words as well, he took me to the ‘console' where he told me that the gig was a part of ‘Forever NUMERO-UNO’ tour for three cities. Lucknow was the last leg of the tour. We were sitting on the ‘consoles’, Sidhu obviously a bit too disappointed with the crowd and still one and a half hours to go on stage was telling me about the other two shows. Someone put a ‘comma’ to our conversation and was keen to know about the show. All the time, right from the point he greeted Sidhu as “bhaisahab” to the time he formed a new band right there called ‘Forever’, I was wondering that how this guy clad in a blue formal shirt was allowed inside but then I realized what he was spoke far more interesting and smart stuff than his dressing sense. Here goes the conversation between him and Sidhu.

He : Bhaisahab, kaun kaun play kar raha hain?
Sidhu : 100 Octane aur Prestorika!
He : Pre-sto-rika?
Sidhu : Presto-rika!
He : Okay, Pre-historika!
Sidhu : Haan haan, wahi. Pre-historika!
He : Achcha bhaisahab, to yeh Forever kaun sa band hain (pointing to the tagline of the NUMERO-UNO that makes it Forever NUMERO-UNO)?
Sidhu : Actually woh Forever band aaya nahin, tabhi hum play kar rahein hain aaj.

We all were chilling out, just waiting for the ‘so called elite people’ to join so that we can go on stage at 8. It was nice to see those diplomats in a rather casual outfit, a way away from their regular three piece suit. They were made comfortable on the sofas in front of the stage. The clock struck 8 and there were Prestorika, live on stage. They started with an Iron Maiden number and placing ‘Sycopanth’ on the second slot in the track list. The crowd was all receptive, whatever small quantity of youth we had. I decided to help Sidhu out in the console, for two reasons, he must have been lonely out there and I thought I would get a better view. It was no sooner than the third song got over than Vasav requested all the metal heads to come right in front of the stage. That’s where he defied all the rules and Prestorika created a crowd which was their own far away from the elite.

With their originals like ‘447’, ‘Fuck the Politics’ and some wonderful onstage chemistry between the band members, it was turning out to be a splendid evening, for music lovers like me at least. The life at Console was pretty okay but every now and then one or the other gentleman would come and request us to add some dance numbers on the stage so as to bind the crowd, perhaps they were new to a rock show, perhaps new to any band performance (exception-ABOB). Someone came and asked Sidhu to lower the volume on the PA, unusual demands and unusual responses, but the show did go on. Confetti and pyros going up - all at the wrong time. Despite of everything, the guys rocked. Wading through ‘Breaking the law’, followed by the same old set of ‘Thank Yous’ to the audience (was it worth, am still wondering) and the sponsors, they ended their slot with ‘Comfortably Numb’ by Pink Floyd.
After a small get together and some photo-shoots, it was time to say ‘good bye’ to my folks for the day and by the time we were doing that, ‘100 Octane’ took the stage but didn’t sound appealing that day. They couldn’t have made me stayed there any longer. The day was over for me but still the second band was having a hard time at the stage trying to figure out and how can we make people stay who were right in front when Prestorika was performing. Lots of pyros and some awesome effects garnished with lots of style and attitude was nothing more than a mere formality to end the day.

While I was on my way back, I felt as if things could have gone beyond if only my city could have known how to pay respect to this genre of music. Being more respectful within ourselves, we respect artists, but not the art. We have reached the moon but we don’t know how to walk.
Forever Yours
Piyush

Writing Credits: Piyush Singh
Editing Credits: Aaishwari Chouhan

Lucknow : Here's One For You

Incidents, more incidents and this life is all made up of incidents. Being a keen observer it has always been easy for me to grasp humour from small things which happen almost every day. Though, I can guarantee that these things are not supposed to make others laugh. It has been an uphill task to seek humour in every small thing, but it’s worth it. People in Lucknow can beat anyone in this game. So, this one is for you my dear Lucknowites.

Lucknow so far has been known for its Nazakat, Nafasat and Tehjeeb. Yeah, yeah, you got it right, I am talking about the same place where every pile (relatively as high as Mt. Everest in city’s context) of garbage had this statement written nearby which says “Muskuraiye ki aap Lucknow mein hain”. By the time your eyes get accustomed to the font and this greeting sign, the pollution grips them badly.

When you look around, you will be surprised to see over loaded autos (tempos, called Vikram in this part of country) flaunting the pollution norms. It’s still hard to decide whether or not they use the standard device or not. They do have the statement “Euro II” which is meant to convey that the so called vehicle is following the pollution norms but the spelling leads to innovation with words and devices like “EARO”, “AERO”, “ERO”, “URO”, what all and what not.

The wonderful people are proud of this city. They keep on living on new hopes and new dreams every following day and they are more than happy; trust me when I say this. Be it tuned ka Kebab which costs as cheap as Rs. 3 per piece or the Thandai or the respect they give you when you take out your slightly advanced looking camera. They can even cause a stampede when some super star turns up. Innocent people with innocent expectations.
Let it be the Sari distribution camp or the prestigious Lucknow Mahotsav stampede, you will always find the victims’ kin sitting at the road side tea-stall and gossiping it all out.

Though it’s all in the roots, Nawab Wazid Ali Shah, while in the process of construction of Imambara, used to get it constructed during the day and would come up with people to demolish in the night. Strange, isn’t it? He did so as to get everyone the job and room to earn something since the area was under a draught that time. The delicacy which has been ruling the taste buds of many celebrities, to the extent of serving as picturesque and comparatively cheaper locations to many blockbusters, Lucknow says it all. It follows the essence which can get you to believe that really these people are ‘Bade Dilwalla’

It has been serving as a panorama of moods and shades with its literary background sunken deep into the history along with the artistic and aesthetic appeal. Generations have walked through the same and dusty road, without a sigh and without a complaint. People know what to expect and what needs to be enhanced. Despite being an architectural wonder, Imambara still echoes with the ‘Azaans’ and hundreds of head bow down at one go during this month of Ramadan.

Feasting and Fasting cover the city with a whole new appeal when Navratra and Ramadan come together. The shops brighten up the evenings with the lights shimmering at every nook and corner. Seasons come and they fly away but they have always failed to nourish the seed of hatred among people and they together, hand in hand come forward for everything, right from fighting an evil to adding to the garbage pile which still proudly sports that, “Muskuraiye ki aap Lucknow mein hain”.

Writing Credits: Piyush Singh
Editing Credits: Aaishwari Chouhan

Lucknow Jam-min'

Lucknow Jam-min’

It took me over a week to compile this article. Sorry, but I haven’t been keeping well, and I still am not well. Anyways, reporting back to the day when I was stuck in the jam. I was on my way to Charbagh to see off some of my relatives and I had to wind up an important task that day on my way back. I had to see my doctor who was kind getting bugged up of seeing me everyday.

We left at 4 and generally it takes around one hour to reach the station (Charbagh) but at 6 I had the so called appointment with the doctor. It was some ‘rally’ that day. Don’t worry, all the above text is just an invocation. Here goes all the happening things of that day:
Time: 5 PM
Venue: Gemini Continental Road (Still 6 kms away from Charbagh, thanks
to that traffic jam)
Meanwhile, signal received, cell phone beeped, who else she could be other than Aaishwari (hey you remember we were talking about something very interesting that day) and for those who don’t know, 70% of my inbox is filled with her SMSes. Anyways, that’s not the thing.

Suddenly a man on scooter next to our car reminded himself, “Oh aaj to Mayawati ki asthi-kalash yatra hain, fass gaya!” Perhaps he was too loud reminding himself. Another politically correct guy from somewhere (I just heard the voice) analyzed and corrected the first gentleman, “Arrey, Mayawati ki nahin, Kanshiram ki!” Overhearing this, a guy with her girlfriend glued to him on his bike retorted, “Saala Kanshiram, marne ke baad bhi pareshan kar raha hain!” A Neta Ji, who was keen on grabbing this opportunity (I am glad he was there in the cloud, because that species is highly explosive when mixed with crowd like this) and said loudly, “Agar Mayawati ek-do baar aur aisa kar de to iska to saara votva (UP word for vote) hi saffa ho jaye.” Ummm, certainly an opportunity captured.
It wasn’t about the woes only. It acted like a ‘Mini Kumbh Mela’. It is famous as a re-discovery spot, thanks to Bollywood. I heard a man on my right side screaming out to a man on my left, “Arrey bhaisahab, aap bhi yahan?” Wow, the best example of comment coated with surprise. The receiver, obviously embarrassed, “He-he-he (artificial one), aap bhi [go to step one] He-he-he (artificial one)!”, but I heard his heart saying it loud, “Ab yeh kameena pakayega”. The other question from the right side which was in the air went like, “Scooter? Zen kaha hain aapki?” The reply, “Arrey mujhe pata tha jam lagne wala hain aaj”. Great! Sir, kindly report to BCCI at the earliest. We need you there terribly. His heart yelled, “Amma, petrol kya u bharwayega?”

Some of them even enjoyed the Jam. They parked their cars and got something to eat from the near by bakeries, nice idea, indeed! It was never before when some volunteers came to the rescue (point noted your Honour, where was the traffic police?) and traffic started moving at snail’s pace. It was no longer that the snail transformed into a tortoise. One man came up to me and out of sheer sarcasm said, “Abhi tak aap yahi pahuche ho, I left you at the turn 15 minutes back”. I replied, “Oh now I know, aap wohi ho (as if I cared at that moment)?” Strange city, as if everyone knows everyone. I am sure, if we would have landed up at his bakery, he would have greeted us with some chocolate pastries. “Idhar kaato (turn), udhar nocho (word for scratch and dent)”, the voices were screaming these religious word all over. Thanks to my driver that I was familiar with this terminology otherwise I would have confused it with some horror movie starring Emraan Hashmi.
Anyways, everyone says, all is well that ends well. We reached Charbagh at around 6:30, my relatives missed their train and I missed my appointment. Got to know one more of city’s untouched face that day.

For the first time in 19 years I have seen that thing, rather, I was matured enough to enjoy that and trust me I have fallen in love with that face as well. However, I noticed that we stand united, at all times. It was heard everywhere and every mouth spoke about it. No matter the volume was low in some cases, but, every mouth (I mean it) said, “Saala Kanshiram, $*&^$#!&$#% Mayawati!”

P.S. : “I would like to pay my tribute to the debarred soul. May your soul rest in peace dear Sir. This was just what we all went through. It’s strange that you could not keep yourself away from the hands of some dirty politicians even after your death”

Writing Credits: Piyush Singh
Editing Credits: Aaishwari Chouhan

Suicide : My Remedy for Pains

Every other day starts as if it is just another day. You never know what is going to happen at the end of the day. You wake up normally but everything depends on the turn of the events. There is a condition to everything, whether the previous day ends or it never ends, it goes into eternity. This is said by me and you’ll get to know the meaning. Read it till each fragmented words sinks deep into your sub conscious mind and composes a image there.

So, all the days are same. Before going into the details, I would like to say that everything mentioned in this article bear no resemblance to any person living or dead (if dead, then it wouldn’t have been here), and if it does then its pure co-incidental. Just another day in my life. I never knew I would be so close to lady of my dreams (refer to: Getting familiar with Acme, www.cafe-xpression.blogspot.com) by the time clock would have struck 12 of the night. I still could feel her presence, sitting next to me draped in a black saree and sitting in the most gracious posture.

Her cold hands are holding down the pages of my diary so that they don’t bother while I am writing. I could feel her long black tresses flowing and falling on her smiling face as well as mine because of the gush of the wind which was trying to turn the pages of my life’s diary. I am not scared of her presence around me. For those who don’t know, she is Death, personified and what a beauty she is.

Aaishwari thinks and mentions that I am ‘insane’, but it’s just her perception. I am addicted to pains. Now, I can feel those pair of the prettiest eyes looking into my diary, as if she could read whatever I am writing down. This is my third meeting with her and she is not saying anything and I don’t want to look at her because all the stars embellished on her black saree are getting me momentarily blind on every single glance.

Psychiatrist will refer to my condition as ‘hallucination’ But, I’ll say that it’s just the portrayal of the picture your heart draws and I guess Suvarna agrees, heart to heart, right? Even if it is hallucination, I m in love with death. I know that it is a mere coincidence that when the freezing fingers of death are running through my hair, Aaishwari must be feeling the shiver run down her spine. Its all in your mind’s game. Addiction to pain is not really very painful as the pain is, addiction just makes it tolerable. In any case, I am not trying to influence the way other people think.

It’s been a couple of days since this incident took place. It’s about a guy; blessed with a wonderful sister, lots of love and everything he could even wish for. The smile he wears is a fake one, even he knows that. To put things better, I’ll place myself in his shoes (no objections please, Roli and Aaishwari). Here it goes. I sat there while a perfect set of songs was aired on the FM and those lines were fading into reality which went like:
Kehte hain sabhi
Yeh zindagi gam aur khushi ka woh mel hain
Par humko to aaya nazar
Ki yeh zindagi who khel hain
Koi sab jeete to sab koi haar de
Apni to haar hain yaar mere

Yaar….mere……. Sitting at dining table, I was all in a state trance and craving, craving for pain. Everything started fading out, the voices around me, the sound of the channels being changed on the television, the riffs and rhythm of the songs being played on FM, the vocals, everything. Eventually I could hear the ‘tic-tic’ of the wall clock and finally all I could hear was my own heart beating aloud and saying to me that I could do it. That was one heck of motivation. I picked up a knife from the table, placed it gently on my wrist and throughout I was flooded with self realization. Started dragging it with a little pressure and soon I was through with it after leaving a cut of about 2.5 inches long.

Even before I could have placed the knife back on the table, I could already feel the blood oozing out, drop by drop. It rolled down my palms, through my finger and landed up the white marble floor, smearing my fingertips and nails with a dark red colour. I sat there silently, staring blankly at those dark red (rather maroon now) drops of blood on the white floor. They were still accusing me of conspiring against them. Slowly my sight was turning black, everything faded and I couldn’t keep my eyes open for long. As soon as I closed my eyes, I felt the ‘thud’ when I actually fell down on the floor.

I don’t know but now I could hear some different voices and sounds all together. I heard some big machines on my left (that’s where the sound was coming from) saying regularly at continuous intervals ‘Beep…Beep…Beep…Beep…’ I heard one familiar voice saying, “Abhi zinda hain, zaldi aao”. I gathered the courage to open my eyes against the white fluorescent lights and could see faces all around me nervous and crying, ‘What For?’ Before, I could have said anything my sight blurred again and black dominated the frame again. I closed my eyes and felt the voices fading away. I heard someone say, “He is sinking” and after that, I heard the machine beeping more ferociously, ‘Beep..Beep..Beep..Beep..’ and then an eternal ‘Be..ee..ee..ee..ee..pp..pp..pp..pp.’ which never seemed to have ended. I don’t know whether it did or it didn’t.

Writing Credits: Piyush Singh
Editing Credits: Aaishwari Chouhan

Freedom : Pause and Play

Things are never as simple as they appear. It is a feeling euphoria that is seeing me through all these days. The official and the unofficial vote of thanks should go to a bunch of amazing musicians and add to that list an amazingly cool friend (Randeep) and perhaps the most enchanting song writer and vocalist, Sarab. Last two weeks have been damn good for me professionally while I am still trying to cope up with a lot of things personally. Let that stuff for some other post in the blog.

I read in one of the most famous and much hyped book called ‘The Alchemist’ that the most simple things in the life are the most extraordinary. It is so true. Two of my decent ‘friends’ rocked my city and my people while I was in the bliss of strange melancholic ecstacy. Prestorika was good, they performed better than my expectation and parikrama was even better. Catching up with the people, chilling out, setting up the drums, though I wasn’t supposed to handle that show but still couldn’t help assisting Robert and that poor soul was having tough time doing it all alone.

This time, the moments I spent with parikrama were more enriching than the ones I have spent earlier and somehow I was keen on experimenting with different genres of music. Couldn’t satiate my hunger with all that I had and the ‘heard over and over again’ type of songs so ended up asking for music here and there. Suddenly while refreshing my mail account I saw this mail by this guy called Randeep Singh and I was surprised to see that mail. He sent me song titled ‘The Doll Is Mine’ by some ‘Blonde Redhead’. That’s not the issue anyhow. The name of the person who sent me the mail did the trick and I recalled, Oh Cool! Even this guy has a band called Menwhopause (MWP) and I fortunately I had their first album Home on my PC. I have heard it several times before and I have conveyed my compliments to the band as well.

There was something strange that particular night. The breeze carried the fragrance of someone I love and then I felt my eye lids getting moist. I was at home but yet far away and all of a sudden a voice, mingled with melody started singing –

Home
Mother, I’m waiting
Patient, you’ve been so late
I’m alone
Son, you’ve been gone too long
I’ve been waiting
Say that you’ll be
Home again soon
Home, is where, where I’ll be
HomeIt’s been raining shadows
The sun’s out
It’s clear enough for me to see the light
And I know it’s right for me to be moving on
I’ve beenLosing the battles I’m playing
With my mind
I need to let it go
Let it go
Move on
Home, I’ll sing a song, I’ll write a tune for you my
Home I'll miss you, I'll miss you
So someday soon
My home
My home
Home
My home
My home

It was Sarab and I knew I have heard these words earlier but I just wasn’t getting them. I started listening to them and I was taken away by the same breeze itself. I landed up at some place which I don’t even know. That had no name and it was located somewhere with red walls around. All I could make out was that I am somewhere in my own heart and trying to recover. I was trying to recover from the hope, despair and melodies which added many unsung tunes to my memoirs.

The play list progressed and so the songs. I was lost in time and space. I wanted to move but sat there on the chair like a lifeless carcass. The music took over and I am perhaps the biggest admirer of the band now. I rushed through the trees, I swam across the biggest of the oceans, I jumped into the river and the music made me do it. Free, Sarab filled the vocals with soul and life and I never ever wondered ever before that free is such a powerful word. I then realized that even if I am nothing, the worst and the ugliest person, I know what I have got and I can cherish that for the lifetime and this is Freedom.

Receding down my own self and then I suddenly felt the pain which I knew that it has been burning deep inside me. With a Shotgun, I wish I would wake up one morning and would find myself dead someday dead. While she weeps on my side with a shotgun in her hand. The body that’s no where to be seen, with blood strained sheets of clothes is now flying high in the skies of eternity. I always knew that death is beautiful but Sarab made me realized that it has beautiful manifestations as well.

Things were going fine and then all of a sudden something come up which was so me and if someone deep with in me have been telling those things –

Little boy you've been dreaming too long
Don't you know I laid a path ahead for you
You're fooling with your funny dreams
Aim higherDon't you know I need you to

Born again, my little one
You're squealing but I got a song for you
Go sleep until you're fresh enough
Awaken now, you've got to face the blues

I, have I been wasting time?
I, have I been wasting time?

Been wasting all my time on you
Been hoping you would learn a trick or two
And now you're walking up to me
You're saying you don't know if I have you

I, have I been wasting time?
I, have I been wasting time?


I wish I can write the band’s name high on sky. I just feel like a flower in the desert rain and I know I can’t stay for long. The aura of the members speaks volumes and this is by far the best band I have heard and trust me, I have heard a lot of them. Parikrama is an exception though. Randeep has always been a good friend and he finally managed to get me tripping over the words like “Sahi Hain” and “Kaafi Sahi”. This is one piece of dedication I would like to put forth to these guys. I feel so helpless compromising at points when I want to paint the sky red and blue with their praises. I have mailed the song to over 400 people in last three days and I m still counting. The reason is that I cant help myself making others to listen to that awesome track.

Randeep thinks that I am helping them out with their PR, but this is just a token of respect, love and friendship I share with these people and all those basics Sarab taught me about the Ad World and ‘ideation’. I wish I can climb up the tallest building in India and scream out your name. These guys with their music have re defined my life and I dedicate my life to the feelings and attitude these guys have instigated into me. Way to go MenWhoPause and yeah, Randeep, as you say play and pause are the part of one single button. So now you know what to do, eh?

Writing Credits : Piyush Singh
Editing Credits : Aaishwari Chouhan
Image Credits : MenWhoPause