Andamans Blues

Andaman Sea

Do you remember I wrote you this song ‘All these things that I’ve done’ by ‘The Killers’ from Andamans? Some portions again, not the full song……

When there is no else to run,

Is there one more room son,

If you can! Hold on!

Yeah! yeah! You gottaa help me out

I got soul but I’m not a soldier.

This may sound like insanely and psychotically emotional to many of us but it happens to all of us when we want the other person to hold on. I don’t know what shit I’m writing and whether you care reading it. But this song is not a joke to me and of course it doesn’t mean shit to me. Sometimes I miss Andamans a lot especially when I am tired and sick of this boring and monotonous life. Andamans with its seas enveloping you like two big arms around you makes you feel safe and secure. I know I might sound stupid but seas are like mothers who cover you from all sides. People living on Andaman Islands might not like the idea, but I tell you that if ever allowed to settle down I would certainly prefer Andamans where everyday you can feel the sound of the sea touching your ears softly. Andamans is place where everybody speaks in 2^nd languages i.e. Hindi/English. Where you can rejoice Bengal’s Macher Jhol [fish cooked in hot gravy of mustard sauce] with the same eloquence as that of the sumptuous spread of South Indian delicacies on Banana leaf with crisp helpings of appam [a papad like fried entity made from rice]. Where the rains break your button operated fragile lovely looking umbrellas into pieces and you come to know of the importance of the age old Dadajee type big umbrellas which can protect you even if it’s raining cats like tigers and dogs like St. Bernards……Unfinished bussiness

Photo Courtsy:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/andamans/pool/

Into Nagaland- Part I

When I started thinking of visiting Nagaland, I was having a bagful of emotions. Firstly I was quite excited to go and meet my fascination (or shall I say my love for things others don’t really venture into). Secondly, I was also somehow sceptical and anxious about the place and people. It was not as if it were my first trip to north eastern part of India. I had been to Meghalaya twice where I first fell in love with pig meat (actually the white juicy part on top of it!). But those visits were in a secure company of fellow travellers and anyways we did not venture much deep in Meghalaya. But this time I was going alone and that too into well dreaded Nagaland.

 From my amorous student days in the university, I had always seen Nagas with a bit of awe mixed with the feelings of suspicion. But things changed once I started working and living at my new workplace at Agra. Here I saw Nagas from my own eyes and skin. Lot of my misconceptions dissolved and I found myself quite fascinated by their way of living. Actually those guys were exactly doing the same things I always tried to live on i.e. to live life away from the general crowd. They taught me that you don’t have to be educated in San Francisco to listen Rock music. You can just sing and play it if you desire so. Those innocent fun loving guys showed me the brighter side of Nagaland. It’s hard to befriend them but you will cherish the time once they let you share their unique world. I remember one of them commenting to me that I was so much like them…the way I sing with a much weird high pitch, the way I cannot escape company of women for long, my guitar and drums love affair (though I can’t play either of them, thanks to my late arrival in this music scene), my carelessness and above all the desire to be different or unique or weird.

I was born in a quite a traditional family, going by the present trend. I was doing things none dared did in my family. I ate, drank and lived much like a Lennon fanatic (minus drugs and of course America).I grew in the university on a high dose of Rock plentifully supplied by AIR FM’s Wicked Hour program plus nicotine blues. I never knew this can be a way of life in Agra till I met the Nagas. So enjoyed every bit of their new found company. Coming back to the journey, I decided finally to embark on this journey into Nagaland.

Planning:

Through different sources, I had come to know that to enter Nagaland, I need an Inner Line Permit (popularly known as ILP) which I found, can be obtained from the office of Deputy resident commissioner, Nagaland House at Delhi. So in mid November ‘07 I managed to get the much needed ILP from Delhi’s Nagaland Bhawan (at Aurangzeb Road, New Delhi-11) after shelling out 20 rupees and filling-in the formalities. The first thing which bewildered me was the following lines written on top of my ILP

‘Permit granted under section 1-4 of the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation Act of 1873’

Here I was standing at Nagaland Bhawan, Delhi in the year 2007 and we still have to abide by the laws put in paper in the year 1873. Whoops!  Thats incredibly Indian!

My ILP also mentioned the purpose of my visit, the duration (usually 15 days which can be extended by permission from local authorities), Identification mark and the place where I wish to go. Actually I wanted to reach Nagaland by the first week of December. This was the time I was informed that great show of Nagaland ‘Hornbill Festival’ takes palce. Another reason was the Rock gigs I could lay my hands on during Hornbill. But unluckily I could not move around that time and so I chose Christmas time to be there. In fact Christmas time is a good time to travel to Nagaland as the entire Naga community is in a festive mood during this time. Plus there is ceasefire among warring factions of Naga freedom fighters and opportunists alike during this festive season.

As my savings did not allow me to afford a flight to any closest Airport to Nagland viz Dimapur Imphal and Guwahati, I chose to book my AC-III rail ticket to Dimapur from Tundla by Brahmaputra Mail. Dimapur is the commercial capital and biggest Railhead in Nagaland. I could have also gone by Delhi-Dimapur Rajdhani Express but as it doesn’t halt at Tundla, I would have to shell out more money first and endure the five hours boring ride by bus for travelling to Delhi. But I would recommend Delhi-Dimapur Rajdhani for travellers starting from Delhi. And Brahmaputra Mail which starts from Delhi for those with a shoe string budget (and those who really want to see the true colours of India).

Papa Roach….Dr. Jhonson’s Boys

I’m super-flamboyant, super-happy, and super-pissed-off,” understates Papa Roach frontman. Jacoby Shaddix aka Toby Dick “I’m off the hook at shows. I’ve done stupid things where our lawyer was going, ‘You can’t be doing that!’ but I’ve also hugged a million kids. How Nirvana was when they came out – that new edge of giving kids a release of emotions – that’s how I hope people connect with Papa Roach’s music. I want to cause every emotion in people. I want them to fight, to fuck; I want to bring out their violence, their sadness, and their happiness.” Singer-Songwriter Dick, Guitarist Jerry Horton, Bassist Tobin Esperance, and Drummer Dave Buckner achieve Dicks estimable goals with INFEST. Produced by Jay Baumgardner (who has worked with Coal Chamber and System of a Down), Papa Roach’s major label debut “is about dealing with everyday struggle,” according to Dick, whose lyrics for songs like “Broken Home,” “Never Enough,” “Binge,” “Thrown Away,” and “Last Resort,” infest’s first radio track are intensely personal and darkly seductive. Inspired from everything from Divorce (“Broken Home”), struggles with alcohol (“Binge”), Attention Deficit Disorder (“Thrown Away”), and suicide. (“Last Resort”) Dick tends to write in the first person. “I deal a lot with the line between good and evil. And I tiptoe down that line myself,” he confesses.“I have a side that’s responsible, a part that knows right from wrong, and I have my punk rock, ‘fuck everything’ side.” Says Horton of the band’s sound; “We lean more towards hip hop, punk and funk, and we also have a rock influence, but we’re not really rap-core. The songs have a pop structure, and they’re very melodic, with a lot of layers and orchestration.” For his part, Dick listens to hardcore bands, digs underground hip hop, played clarinet in his High Schools prize-winning wind ensemble and names Faith No Mores Mike Patton as one of his biggest influences.Press raves, too, bare out Papa Roach’s diverse approach. Las Vegas City Life praised the quartet for it’s “surprising moments of vulnerability and sensitivity in it’s cathartic opera-core, [Dick] sounding almost pleading in the world weary voice of youth betrayed”; the publication also informed, “Papa Roach stakes out it’s territory” (May 20, 1999). Sacramento’s News & Review, meanwhile voted the band “most likely to show up Rage Against the Machine at their own gig” (June 3, 1999), and the San Jose Mercury News commended the foursome’s “sheer urban grit” and Dick’s “randy, alluring and apocalyptic” vocals (Aug. 5, 1999). Not bad for a kid who began “playing” music in his garage with “garbage cans and baseball bats” (and who later moved out while still in high school and began working at an air force base hospital to support himself).
Growing up in the Northern California town of Vacaville – for the moment best known as the onion capital of the world. P-Roach, as their legion of fans calls them, formed in high school (Horton did not attend school with the others; he met them via an ex-girlfriend who was a P-Roach fan.) At the teens’ first gig, a 1993 school talent show, Dick’s mom overheard a judge mutter, “I hope they don’t quit their day jobs.” The band improved by leaps and bounds, however, and was soon selling out 300-500 seat venues (some of which would have required fake IDs had the band members been patrons). Despite their youth, the members of Papa Roach brought a wealth of experience to their developing sound.

Buckner, a Los Angeles native whose first instrument was violin, was taking drum lessons from a 70-year-old female jazz drummer by the time he reached junior high. He quickly made first chair in concert band but shortly thereafter got his first drum kit (for Christmas) and proclaimed: “I’m sick of this school band crap – I wanna play rock ‘n’ roll!” His next move? “I sat down with [Led Zeppelin's] Physical Graffiti and a set of headphones and went to work.” He says of his influences: “I remember being three years oldand listening to [Pink Floyd's] The Wall on car rides with my Mom. Later I would kick it at my aunt and uncle’s with Suicidal Tendencies and Metallica on vinyl. My friends in grade school got me into Run-DMC and the Beastie Boys, and junior high was all about classic rock. In high school, I was into a whole range of stuff, from John Coltrane to Fugazi.

That’s when I discovered all the great and beautiful music that isn’t part of the mainstream. I’ve kept my mind open since then. Esperance – who joined P-Roach at 13 – grew up watching his Dad play bass. “He got me my first bass when I was 10, ” he recalls. His fingers blistered from the heavy bottom end he provides P-Roach, Esperance continues: “I had friends who were into jazz and reggae, and I took those and lumped them together. My Mom and I would listen to the same jazz music, or the Doors, or Duke Ellington. Then I had my punk rock category. He confirms that Papa Roach’s music takes similarly melting pots tack, commenting: “People put us in the rap-rock category. I don’t care what they call us, but we definitely do it differently from anyone out there right now.”
On the contrary, the band gigged steadily all over California – sometimes mounting as many as 14 shows a month – with acts like Kid Rock, Static-X, Incubus, Bad Brains and other such compadres on The Warped Tour. One of the questions most frequently aimed at the band concerns their moniker. It seems Buckner had a CD by jazz musician Pancho Sanchez called Papa Gato. The title struck a chord with Dick, whose grandfather’s last name was Roatch – he was “Papa Roatch” to his family.
” The band also takes pride in their familial orientation. “We’re a team,” Dick insists. “Some bands are like, ‘We just fired our guitar player.’ We don’t do that shit; we don’t fire people. We’re family – you get booted out!” Esperance concurs: “We get along better than most any other band in the world. If you were to hang out with us, you’d wonder what the hell was wrong with us. We’re constantly laughing, then getting in arguments, telling each other to fuck off, then we’re best friends again in the next minute. We can’t really agree on a whole lot, except the music and the band. We’re real different people, but P- Roach is where we come together.

Watch Between Angels and Insects at RapidIq Media Blog.

Lost in the Song!

This world keeps giving us surprises year after year. And we continue getting awed by these surprises. Sometimes good and sometimes bitter. Falling in love without fail is another activity we often indulge in. And surprisingly we soon start thinking; this is the end of the series of surprises. But we all know that there are more surprises in store. Life is amazingly curved or shapeless. Exactly like a cloud that changes shape with every slight move. True to this spirit the lines below are written and sung by one of my favorite bands…’The Killers’. I fell in love with this one when I was walking alone on the sandy beaches of Andamans. Here is the slightly modified version of this great poem..song..prose? Whatever you name it! Dedicated to those who are lost in the song?

When there’s nowhere else to run. Is there room for one more son. One more son. If you can hold on.If you can hold on, hold on
I want to stand up, I want to let go. You know, you know – no you don’t, you don’t. I want to shine on in the hearts of men. I want a meaning from the back of my broken hand. Another head aches, another heart breaks. I am so much older than I can take. And my affection, well it comes and goes. I need direction to perfection, no no no no.
Help me out
Yeah; you know you got to help me out. Yeah, oh don’t you put me on the blackburner. You know you got to help me out. And when there’s nowhere else to run. Is there room for one more son? These changes ain’t changing me
The cold-hearted boy I used to be. Yeah, you know you got to help me out
Yeah, oh don’t you put me on the blackburner. You know you got to help me out
You’re gonna bring yourself down. Yeah, you’re gonna bring yourself down
Yeah, you’re gonna bring yourself down.
I got soul, but I’m not a soldier
I got soul, but I’m not a soldier. Over and out, last call for sin. While everyone’s lost, the battle is won. With all these things that I’ve done. All these things that I’ve done. If you can hold on
If you can hold on.

Fine again!

Seether plays a style of heavy metal mostly associated with the post-grunge era of alternative music, complete with self-obsessed lyrics and a sound that mixes crunchy distortion with brooding texture. Hailing from
South Africa, the group was discovered by Wind Up Records and instantly pushed to the moon by the label. They landed a spot on the popular Ozzfest tour and managed to release an EP while biding their time for the unveiling of their full-length debut in the summer of 2002. Issued that August, Disclaimer was an immediate hit, boasting a solid single in “Fine Again.” Seether spent much of the following year on the road, where singer Shaun Morgan’s relationship with Evanescence siren Amy Lee blossomed. But while the tour time ensured top-of-mind status for Seether, it also delayed their return to the studio.Their proper sophomore effort, Karma and Effect, was released in May 2005 and hit the Top Ten. One Cold Night followed in 2006.

Try listening ‘fine again’…n feel good at My video blog!