Blissful MT days in Mumbai

My first job was my dream job of being in the advertising world of Lintas, it was the best years of advertising (95 - 97), especially the media industry. There were limited PC’s and using a home grown tool which we used to make iterations and take out reach frequency printouts to get the best fit. Being the youngest had the advantage of having a godmother in Ambika & a closer father figure & mentor in Partho Da. 

It was fun filled days where we used to keep travelling from Parel to Express Towers for meeting with the servicing team and sometimes with the HLL brand teams & our work would start only in the evening and go on till late especially if there was a presentation coming up or an annual planning discussion.

Dinner from Noorani’s in Haji Ali was a favourite with many of us especially the Bheja Fry & huge Roti’s which we had to pull & bite with all our strength to eat it. Shibu used to generally order and we used to all pull in and then he would redistribute once he claimed. Being in the media we were invited to parties with free daaru & food to boot, then there were movie screenings where we got passes for the preview shows. This was 95 & HLL so TV was dominant in all our plans. All of us would take common cabs to reach these parties and then split - many times we would come back to work.

Those were days when seniors invited the entire gang to the house, 2 such occasions were very memorable. Being the junior most, going to a HOD’s house for drinks and dinner was a bit scary in those days but it was like a family and everyone treated everyone else on the same level in these sessions. It was really beautiful. Thanks to Shibu I was given extra drinks and was made high, thankfully I just kept my mouth shut :) So I escaped any embarrassment. 

I continued this trend when I left Lintas - even though I had 2 small girls at home, my colleagues in Titan would come over and many of my happiest moments were when they came over to my house and we were up till late bitching, gossiping, singing and just letting go. 

Then there were picnics we went to Murud Janjira in a bus I think and stayed in a dorm kind of place, Pio played guitar and we sang songs till late at night on the beach and next day we took a boat to the fort & played volleyball inside in the sea and then of course we sang all the way back - hoarse and sleepy. 

The cab rides when you don’t have money & hoping that your roomie is in the room and will pay when you reach your home are unforgettable (talk about risk taking) & taking the last train out of Churchgate was a big talking point the next day at the office. 

Many of the above are family lore, I have retold them so many times. 

Thanks to Akbar’s post (of the pic above) it triggered so many faces and memories that I had to write it today. Miss you all - wish there was time travel - till then FB will do, Happy to be back here.

TM Krishna & Immersion

Very few living people amaze me, TM Krishna is one such person. It’s not that I am an expert on him or that I read his book The Spirit of Enquiry, which I plan to read now. You can read many of the essays in probably 2 of the best independent and thought provoking news sites which I visit (Scroll & The wire). In fact it’s a scroll article which is making me write this small note.

I have just seen one of his presentations in NCPA when during lockdown, NCPA had opened its archive for free viewing. He was presenting on the topic - Art & Activism in Tata Literature Live festival. For that 1 hr or more he was speaking I just could not get out of my chair. The way he spoke with complete passion & belief - meaning of art & activism & how music relates to it, it was like an immersive experience of you being in his mind. It was like he had meditated on this topic for hours and hours and formed his point of view - whether you agree or disagree.

I found the similar sense - when today I heard him sing the Ashoka edict & the subsequent interview. He is probably the first person who has put this edict on music. I have never heard carnatic music but I heard and read the edict (it was translated in English although it did not bring out the full meaning of edict and was quite superficial, I could make it as I read the real text which he was singing). 

Again, here if you hear him speak, you could see the same quality of him immersing himself into the words and its pronunciation and how he spent time putting it in music. More importantly, it was not just the music, the reason why he wanted to do this. How, as he read, understood and created the music - the music started talking to him & he and music became the same. Which is what in my mind the true essence of music & you can see it in the eyes of Pandit Ravi Shankar - if you see him playing in a concert or any other greats. As a listener we take refuge in that moment through them and feel blissful.

I have never in life read the edicts - but as I heard and read it. I found it so relevant at these times that it lifted me up - that someone could write it in the 3rd century BC. If we just followed it the world wouldn’t have been where it is now with all the conflicts across countries, states, language, caste, environment. I know it was not a possibility & never will be but the mindfulness of the edict was really astounding. 

Some time back I wrote about the meaning of life - and this is a clear example of someone who has put out something because it provoked / enlightened him / spoke to him and he hoped that the same will happen to many of us who read or hear it. From the outside at least it looks like he has found the meaning of life at least for those moments when he worked on the edicts, till his next search journey or project begins. All of us should be lucky enough to get at least 1 shot at this moment(s) if not more.

Here’s till the next one.

Read the scroll article here: https://scroll.in/article/1032229/why-emperor-ashoka-still-matters-historian-nayanjot-lahiri-and-vocalist-tm-krishna-in-conversation (pls listen to the edicts )

One of the books on Ashoka recommended by Manu Pillai (one of my favourite history story teller) : The great Mughal by Ira Mukhoty. https://www.amazon.in/Akbar-Great-Mughal-Ira-Mukhoty/dp/9389836042/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Ira+Mukhoty&qid=1662623595&s=books&sr=1-1 (Buy it here)

Some TM Krishna articles, you can read them here:

https://m.thewire.in/byline/t-m-krishna 

https://scroll.in/author/2876

Memoria

Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Memoria starts with a sonic sensation, a “bang” that wakes up Tilda Swinton’s Jessica Holland. The noise propels her body and thus the narrative, inasmuch as it sets the viewer’s trajectory onto the realms of sound. In other words, the film becomes all about sound; about hearing, listening and feeling; about the whole notions of the smallest details the sound can produce, which we, the viewers-listeners, microdose along with the screening.

In Memoria - the story is driven by a memory of a sound and Jessica’s search to find the source of this sound. The thump which only she can hear while walking, or having a meal with her family - can you imagine how it would feel the disquiet of a weird sound which only you can hear. The first thought would be that it is a dream but that we don’t dream while eating. 

She tries to recreate the sound in a sound studio & then that person disappears (no answer given in the movie) & exasperated she tells her friend - she is going mad. Not able to sleep, she wanders on the outskirts of the city where she meets someone who is like a shaman (in jeans & shirt) who can help her see the dream / go back in time and connect with the sound. And there is a spacecraft which flies off - Was that the source of sound? Maybe. Left to interpretation. It got the Cannes Critics award.

The movie has an extremely slow pace and shots are almost like still shots so the camera will focus on a particular person for 3 minutes while a jazz ensemble is playing in the background. Similarly on sound it is all real sound of forest & birds & trees - for this reason the movie was shot in Columbia. 

I came out feeling lost and only after hearing the interviews & podcasts could make some sense of it. I could then empathize with what Jessica was going through. I have gone through this phase of carrying something on my head or in my dream or suddenly awakened but not able to describe the sensation. For me it was disturbing and the sensation it created could not be described in words for anybody else - so you stay quiet & pass it off as insomnia. Which is what she does. 

You have to be in the character's mind to really appreciate such movies. Many of the movies in MUBI which have world movies (in all possible languages) I come out wondering what it’s all about. You will have to  

Postscript: Next on my list.

In the recent Fahadh Faasil-starrer Malayankunju, set against the calamitous landslides across Kerala in 2019, the full force of the natural disaster is felt like a violent jolt. We hear nothing for a few seconds before and after Faasil’s house comes crashing down. Sound, both the presence and absence of it, plays one of the key role in the movie.

In one of our movie discussions Jai Arjun Singh who conducts these sessions said “If you are seeing Malaykunju, see it when the room is dark, don’t see it on phone, see it on a large screen with a good sound system or with headphones otherwise don’t see it. He was emphatic about it as always”

Floods - 3

Some time back I wrote about the floods and as a cue - On Monday 5th September most parts of Bengaluru was flooded including our basement. Even today there were videos of apartments in Yamlur. The water levels inside the apartment complex was so high that only a tractor could go in. Each villa here costs 8 cr. In the video you could see Lexus, Mercedes and other high end cars completely submerged. 

The rumour is that these apartments were built on top of a storm water drain which blocked the passage of water. There are only 2 kinds of people who can afford a 8 Cr villa - either a business man or a C-Suite professional. I can pardon the businessman for not being knowledgeable or he may have bought for investment. But the other category - did they not know about the possibility of rain water - I doubt because most of them would have pre-booked the apartment when the builder would have just shown the drawings & created a model flat.

In Faridabad Omaxe made us wait for 3 years from the expected date of possession & after that there was no water as the ground water had receded so all water was supplied only through tankers. There are multiple other cases where the builders are primarily responsible but in all the tweets & news nobody is complaining about them. Of course the govt - builder nexus is well known, since they are the final authority they should audit and question these builders even before they start construction.

Tomorrow or the day after, a huge mass of people will rise and start going back to the office, will they remember the experience, and how will they bring in change? I have been asking that question to myself - having decided to be in sustainability space, as I start reading about the Pakistan Floods, Bangalore Floods & earthquake in China & there may be smaller incidents which go undocumented like bleaching of corals or the disappearing antarctic ice - news which appear in one corner of a website and since we are not affected by it, many of us will ignore. 

The more you read you get daunted by the challenge we face. But there are people with twinkle in their eyes & deep knowledge: 

The below article is written by an water expert on what can be done:

https://scroll.in/article/1032209/bengalurus-flood-devastation-is-the-tyranny-of-small-decisions-water-expert-vishwanath-s 

Meet the water warriors. These people I salute. 

https://campaign.thebetterindia.com/indiaswaterwarrior/ 

In sandman when dream fights hell, it’s an imaginary game which is played out and in the last round dream is covered by darkness something like black hole and for a moment hell thinks she will win, but dream breaks the spell by a 4 letter word HOPE - which is what keeps the humanity going after the floods, after the rains, earthquake or wars.  

See it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya-wSF-8w-E - probably one of the best sequences in Sandman.

News - Circa September 22

Reading news in a newspaper form has been a habit for the last 30 years. I am so obsessed that the newspaper guys at times get thoroughly confused. On Saturday & Sunday I take weekend editions of Mint - Mint Lounge & The Hindu magazine  and weekdays ET or TOI. The experience of holding the paper and reading the newspaper is something till now could not be replaced by reading the same on a mobile or an app. 

The same is true for books - Books have now encroached my wardrobe and they lie their forlorn between by dwindling formal shirts and t’s and jackets. The wife has switched to a kindle I just could not. So I end up carrying huge - fat books through airports, fortunately this will be a thing of the past as I move to train & bus as my primary transport and get out of my corporate travel.

But as they say - change is in the air. Here’s the new outlook, circa September 22. 

When I looked objectively at reading the newspaper I realized it was a real waste of valuable time trying to read things which I did not want to. I would just scan the paper to understand what’s happening in India & around the world but many of it I would detest like the politics or the killings and murders etc. Most news spread despair and were witch hunts. 

So I unsubscribed from the daily newspaper and kept only the weekend which had interesting articles and reviews of books / movies or events etc - more in the culture zone. Which is what I like - especially Mint Lounge & Hindu magazine whose quality of articles I loved

I subscribed to In Shorts for quick updates on mobile, and bookmarked a few independent websites like Scroll, the wire, quint for a more detailed reading. I registered on Splainer but after reading the mails did not join the paid subscription. Somehow the choice of topic did not appeal to me. I plan to subscribe to CTQ compounds once I am back from my month long sojourn. I also looked at the sites spreading positive news like logical indian, the better india - you can visit them for some sudden visit of inspiration like our story but not a daily news feed. I also picked a few instagram posts around sustainability & columnists & writers in Twitter whom I will follow.  

Done with the pre-work - I set a time of an hr in the morning for catch up & afternoon for long article reading and research on topics I liked especially videos to arouse me from sleep. Night for research and my personal writing. 

Let’s see how it goes. 

Mile Sur Mera Tumhara

On 31st India celebrated Ganesh Chaturthi and welcomed prosperity to their home. Unfortunately we had to close all doors, windows, pull curtains whatever we could that could muffle the sounds of loudspeaker blaring in our neighborhood. Me in Bangalore had to first listen to Kannad songs and then the entertainment program - where from children to teenagers to aunties sang poems to rock songs to shlokas. Most of them were out of tune and just needed the mic to run amok - which they did.   

The wife had a headache, the adult kid put on Bose Quiet Comfort and grooved to her songs and me occupying the drawing room had to take the brunt of the sound as I am closest to the window which is closest to the speaker. If in Mumbai I would have at least heard Hindi songs which I did when I stayed there for a year - there drums & orchestra ruled and unlike in Bangalore they walked in the road with people dancing on streets, bursting crackers. Then there is Dahi handi where people form  a human pyramid and burst the handi or splash colored water on everyone. Roads are blocked and we were advised to go home early or WFH. During the 2 years of COVID these gatherings were banned but this year it’s the 2nd day running that I have to listen to this.

Whom does one complain to ? Do we actually want to complain and spoil the fun which the kids and families of ISRO (the neighborhood) are having at our cost ? The answer to the 2nd question is NO, we just grit our teeth and bear it. That’s what we call accommodating which most right wing members don’t agree with when they ban azan’s being played from a mosque & reading of namaz on the roads. 

These days we are trolled,warned & then jailed if you raise your voice especially if you belong to a minority or supporting them or rallying against the current wave of authoritarianism. Land within & around mosques are dug up to find idols hence linking it to a lineage of HIndu. Most of us are not impacted or ever will be because many of these events are far far away & just a news item which we may read and discard. Maybe have an intellectual discussion around it. But I think that will be the end of it.  

It’s sad what we have become & becoming, on 15th August - someone forwarded one of the first India songs - mile sur mera tumhara. Many of us have grown up listening to that, it was a nice song like the Hamara Bajaj ad. It gave us a feeling of pride - pride for being such a vast sub-continent with so many languages and traditions. There was nothing more to it. 

I would rather have 100 people enjoy the Ganesh Chaturthi in my neighboring compound or ignore the azaan being read in loud speaker every morning or not bat an eyelid if my food is delivered by a minority group person or a beautician who comes home from the north east or the security guard protecting my apartment once belonged to Bangladesh and migrated during partition.

That’s my way …mile sur mera tumhara.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jf6pwtPqCs The video here.

How will you measure your life ?

Many years back I stumbled on this book in a library. It is a very small book and this was from someone who had started the whole story of innovation way back in 19 97. I had recommended the book to many of my friends, Like any other philosophy this asks the usual question but approaches it like any other Harvard article it approaches it like a problem to be solved and hence gives certain ideas which are based on past cases / situations.

In brief it said the same thing which Stephen Covey said - value relationships, find time to nurture them, do what you love and believe in, but 1 thing which was new and stuck me - was Compromising your integrity is a slippery slope, therefore don’t do it. This is explained beautifully (Have you decided on something that was in contradiction in what you believe; however, justified it as a decision you’d just take “just this once?” This is an illustration of how detrimental these exceptions can be - i vaguely remembered an example which he had mentioned from his life where he was the key team member of a basketball play off and since the timing clashed with his prayers if I am not wrong - he was desperate to go but he did not.)

Don’t get into the trap of - Just this once. It stuck me because we are making these exceptions all the time - at least I do. So, it’s not about the big battle or decision but it’s about the small ones we fight every day (I did not want to use plastic bag but the eggs would break if I wrap it in paper and put in the bag - I will take it just this once and next time get the egg case, this happened few weeks back - You cannot compromise on that). I know it can be super tough - but that’s the only way to live a life of integrity. 

At 50 & at the crossroads - I also asked this question to myself a few years back, a larger question of what would mean to lead a life of integrity for the next 25 years. How will I measure my life ? If you think hard, the choices in front of you will astound you because there is so much you can do as compared to when we passed out of school or college - But after running the corporate race for the last 25 years the first thing one needs to do is unlearn & slow down. If one wants to.

Some thoughts which came to my mind was:

1. Spread Joy and Happiness every day, Give if nothing else time. (Read volunteer)

2. Live a slow, uncluttered & sustainable life (read Don’t buy) 

3. Make earth more sustainable - Can I be passionate about this?

4. Reconnect with friends & extended family 

5. Rekindle your passions - read(classics, translations, long form articles), write (daily), see (B/W movies), hear (amazing world of podcasts), experience creativity (plays, paintings, installations), run, travel, cook.

These are not goals but principles with which many of us want to live by and not uncommon but then the “just this once” catches on and we slip. 

Once I had time to think and had the space to practice, I still had to work really hard to unwire (because we are so hard wired in our consumption habits) just say no because many actions happen unconsciously and under pressure of social discomfort that you have to be prepared to be uncomfortable and ready for confrontation with your own self.

The self which you have created.  

Letting Go is the toughest part - I am hoping the rest will follow. I am still learning.

Postscript: See Pixar’s latest offering Turning Red on Disney to understand the above :)